Property Tycoons Lose $65 Billion After China Curbs Excesses

When Hui Ka Yan headlined a high-profile philanthropic event in 2018, he spoke at length about how he subsisted on sweet potatoes as a child in his home village.

The China Evergrande Group chairman was in his prime -- with $40 billion in wealth, he rivaled Jack Ma as the nation’s richest person. He made a point to attribute his success to the Communist Party. That year, about a fifth of the country’s billionaires hailed from a real estate sector that reveled in rags-to-riches stories like Hui’s.