China leads the world in self-made female billionaires
China has more self-made female billionaires than anywhere else in the world. There are 88 female billionaires globally and China has 56 of them, led by real estate magnate Chen Lihua who is worth $7.2bn, according to Shanghai research firm Hurun Report. After Chen is “touchscreen queen” Zhou Qunfei – worth $6bn – who is founder of Lens, which makes touchscreens for mobile devices. The US comes second, with 15 female billionaires, and the UK third with eight. No other country has more than one.
China is home to more self-made female billionaires than any other nation, according to Hurun Report. The Shanghai-based research firm marked International Women’s Day on March 8 by sharing its latest numbers. It counts 88 such billionaires in the world, and says China has 56 of them.

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Topping the global list is Chen Lihua, popularly known as the “Beijing real estate queen.” Growing up in poverty in the Chinese capital, the high school dropout started off in furniture repair. She moved to Hong Kong in the early 1980s and got into real estate investing. Six years later, she established what is now Fu Wah International Group, a real estate giant involved in property development, asset management, and finance.

Following Chen is the “touchscreen queen” Zhou Qunfei, the founder of Lens, which is based in the Hunan province and makes touchscreens for mobile devices.

After those two China makes four more appearances in Hurun’s Top 10 list of the world’s self-made female billionaires:

Name Net worth ($ billion) Main company Country Chen Lihua 7.2 Fu Wah China Zhou Qunfei 6.0 Lens China Zhou Hongwen & husband Xiao Jianhua 5.5 Tomorrow China Tina Green & husband Philip Green 5.5 Arcadia UK Chen Chunmei & husband Gong Hongjia 5.3 Hikvision China Judy Love & husband Tom Love 4.8 Love’s Travel Stops US Wu Yajun 4.6 Longfor China Zhang Yin 4.5 Nine Dragons Paper China Peggy Cherng & husband Andrew Cherng 4.4 Panda Express US Lynda Resnick & husband Stewart Resnick 4.2 Roll International US

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Some variations will arise based on how one counts, of course—Hurun also described its methodology—but suffice to say China does well in the category.