Minxin Pei, Columnist

China Can’t Blame Everything on Wayward Billionaires

Fallen tycoons likely could not have engaged in the risky behavior that blew up their empires without lax oversight and help from local officials.

October 4, 2023 at 10:00 PM UTC

By Minxin Pei

Minxin Pei is professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. His latest book is "The Broken China Dream: How Reform Revived Totalitarianism."

Hui in happier times.
Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg

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The fall of Hui Ka Yan, the founder of real estate developer China Evergrande Group and once Asia’s richest man with an estimated fortune of $45.3 billion in 2017, has certainly been steep. But it should not come as a surprise.

Hui, who was placed under investigation last week for possible wrongdoing, is only the latest in a long list of disgraced Chinese billionaires, including Xiao Jianhua (sentenced to 13 years in August 2022), Ye Jianming (reportedly detained in 2018 but not yet formally charged), Wu Xiaohui (serving an 18-year sentence after conviction in 2018), and many others.