Until a few months ago Yang Huiyanat 41, was the richest woman in all of Asia and his dominance was not threatened. With $21 billion and a few pennies, he dominated the charts. Then he suddenly lost half of his assets, which still amount to a remarkable figure of 11 billion.

His money is connected to the family business, Country Garden Holdings, a real estate company founded in 1992 by his father, Yang Guoqiang, who literally started it from scratch. Over the years, it has grown so much that it has become global. Today he is involved in real estate development and management, including hotels, as well as construction and interior design.

Huiyang, born in Shunde, Guangdong Province, in 1981, was destined to be the heiress, but until her father gave her a controlling stake, catapulting her into the business world, her life seemed to take a different path. He decided to study science and do so in the United States. However, after graduating from Ohio University in 2003, she was called back to China to gain company experience and fulfill a commitment that to many seems like a huge fortune, but which can also be heavy burden: inherit.

In 2007, her father sold her a 70% stake, retaining the role of president. Huiyang runs the shack with her father and sister, who also sits on the board of directors, but she was the one who faced the heaviest charges when the company began to lose shares. While not risking bankruptcy like other real estate giants, it still had to liquidate shares in order to raise the debt it needed to cope with a deep crisis in the sector.

It was still doing well in 2018, generating solid turnover and employing over 120,000 people worldwide. Two years later, everything began to creak. The first shadows fell over her when the so-called Cypriot documents became known in 2020, revealing Huyan’s opaque ties to Cyprus. Cypriot citizenship, granted to her in an incomprehensible way, is in fact not even recognized by China.

2022 was even worse because earlier this year Huiyan he saw how his wallet became much thinner. His bank accounts are still full, of course, but losing half of his assets was a huge blow. Her reputation as an entrepreneur also suffered.

Despite this, she also entered the top 100 richest people in hospitality last June and still remains the richest woman in Asia, although she is followed by another Chinese entrepreneur in the chemical fiber sector, Fan Hongwei, who until 2019 ranked fourth. position. The Goddess of Fortune, known to be blindfolded, must have been distracted. But if nothing else, Huiyan has one certainty: be that as it may, he will never be left without a roof over his head.