Hong Kong, July 10, 2025 (CNBC) – Forbes has unveiled its highly anticipated list of China’s Best CEOs for 2025, revealing significant shifts in leadership dynamics across the nation’s corporate landscape.
This year’s cohort of 50 top executives steered their companies to remarkable performance: their firms delivered an average stock price surge of 79% during the assessment period, with average net profit growth exceeding 50% in the latest fiscal year.
The standout performer in shareholder value creation was Wang Ning of Pop Mart. Since his debut on last year’s list, the company achieved a staggering 200% increase in net profit, reaching RMB 3.4 billion, while its market capitalization skyrocketed 9-fold to surpass the RMB 300 billion threshold.
China’s creative economy shows particular momentum, evidenced by first-time appearances from Enlight Media’s Wang Changtian and China Literature’s Hou Xiaonan. This strength reflects a broader trend in the intellectual property and entertainment sectors.
Wang Ning leads a group of 18 repeat honorees, including Lei Jun of Xiaomi, Fang Hongbo of Midea, and Yin Zhiyao of AMEC. Notably, BYD’s Wang Chuanfu secured his fifth consecutive title, cementing his status as a perennial industry leader.
A significant shift emerges with 25 new faces on the list, disrupting the historical dominance of CEOs from new energy and semiconductor sectors. A consumer sector surge propels executives from established and emerging brands like Lao Feng Xiang (Xu Gaoming), Mixue Bingcheng (Zhang Hongfu), Chagee (Zhang Junjie), and Guming Tea (Wang Yun’an).
This shift follows a wave of high-profile consumer IPOs, elevating the consumer category count to nine executives. Zhang Junjie of Chagee also made history as the first CEO born in the 1990s to join the list in its 21-year history.
Among notable returns, Tencent’s Pony Ma (Ma Huateng) makes a high-profile reappearance after a four-year absence. Under Ma’s leadership during the measurement period (May 30, 2023 – May 30, 2025), Tencent saw its stock rise 51.8% and recorded an impressive 68% year-over-year surge in net profit attributable to shareholders, reaching RMB 194.07 billion.
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