Liu Yongxing (, born June 1948) is a Chinese businessman. He is the founder, chairman and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of East Hope Group, a Chinese company active in the

agribusiness Agribusiness is the industry, enterprises, and the field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy, in which case it is also called bio-business or bio-enterprise. The primary goal of agribusiness is to maximize profit ...

as well as

chemical A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...

and

non-ferrous metal In metallurgy, non-ferrous metals are metals or alloys that do not contain iron ( allotropes of iron, ferrite, and so on) in appreciable amounts. Generally more costly than ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals are used because of desirable pro ...

industries. He is the honorary president of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce in

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

, a part-time professor at

China Agricultural University China Agricultural University (CAU) is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. The university is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of China. It is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. The un ...

, MBA lecturer, and a member of the Standing Committee of the

CPPCC The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China and a central part of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s united front system. Its members advise and put proposals ...

Personal life

Liu Yongxing was born in

, China, and has three brothers, Liu Yongyan (刘永言), Chen Yuxin (陈育新) and

Liu Yonghao Liu Yonghao (; born 1952) is a businessman in agribusiness in China. He is the founder and chairman of New Hope, the biggest animal feed producer in China. He is also involved in banking. As of 2019, He was ranked the 19th richest in China by ''F ...

(刘永好), as well as one sister, Liu Yonghong (刘永红). They started out as farm workers in low social standing due to their family background as wealthy

landlord A landlord is the owner of property such as a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate that is rented or leased to an individual or business, known as a tenant (also called a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). The term landlord appli ...

s before the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

. He graduated from

Xihua University Xihua University (XHU; ) is a provincial public university in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. It is affiliated with the Sichuan Provincial People's Government. Foundation XHU was founded on April 16, 2003 when Sichuan University of Science and Techno ...

in 1968. Liu's wife is a

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

by training, with whom he has one child. He resides in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

Career

In the late 1970s, Liu Yongxing and his brothers founded an electronics company that had to close soon after, as such business ventures were regarded as “too capitalistic” at the time. In 1982, Liu YongXing and his three brothers, accumulated 1,000 RMB and started a company called the “Hope Group.” The business consisted of raising quail and hatching chickens in the Sichuan Province. They also established the Hope Research Center for animal feeds in 1986. In 1995, Hope Group was split up into four separate companies among the siblings: West Hope Group (Chen Yuxin), New Hope Group (Liu Yonghai) and Continental Hope Group (Liu Yongyan). Liu Yongxing retained parts of the agricultural business and got involved in the heavy chemical and aluminium industry, which ultimately led to the founding of today’s East Hope Group in 1995, one of the largest aluminium producers worldwide. In 1999, Liu Yongxing relocated his East Hope HQ to Shanghai, China. In 2002, Liu Yongxing started his business in the Aluminum industry. In August 2016, Chinese news site Sohu published a profile covering Liu Yongxing and his approach to conducting business. Concerning criticism about environmental pollution caused by East Hope factories, the article quotes Liu as saying that “in the heavy chemical industry, environmental issues are a common risk, so I do everything in accordance with the most stringent standards.” Nevertheless, East Hope Group has been penalized multiple times for violating environmental regulations that included fines, forced production cuts and technical upgrades. For example, punishments were handed out in 2014, 2015 and 2016 for exceeding SO2, NOx and dust emission caps of the Group’s plants in Shandong, Xinjiang, Henan and Inner Mongolia. In 2015, East Hope's Baotou plant received 4.2 billion yuan in funds to incentivize upgrading its environmental protection facilities, while at the same time, a new kiln for solid waste disposal at one of the company's cement factories was regarded as innovative by Chinese authorities, according to East Hope sources. On 15 December 2016, two people were killed when a red mud reservoir at East Hope’s Sanmenxia plant failed. Four months prior to the accident, amid another red mud spill incident in the province, the local government conducted safety inspections at East Hope facilities and approved their full compliance with the standards. Thus far, there are no reports that the company has faced repercussions for the accident.

Awards and honors

In 2002, Liu Yongxing was rewarded with the “2001 CCTV Top 10 China’s Economic Leaders” award, as well as with the “Sohu 2001 Top 10 Financial Leaders” award.

Wealth

Liu Yongxing is regarded among the richest people in China. He was ranked #18 on Forbes’ China Rich List with a net worth of $6.6 billion, which also makes him the richest Shanghai resident. Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index ranked him at #93 globally with $12.3 billion. His brothers are also billionaires and owners of their own companies.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Yongxing 1948 births Living people Businesspeople from Chengdu Billionaires from Sichuan Chinese company founders Businesspeople in agriculture