Xu Jiayin

Xu Jiayin
Born	Xu Jiayin (许家印) Template:Birth year and age
Birthplace	Taihe County, Henan, China
Nationality	Chinese
Occupation	Business executive, founder of China Evergrande Group
Known for	Founding China Evergrande Group; rise and fall as one of China's wealthiest individuals

Xu Jiayin (Template:Lang; also known by his Cantonese name Hui Ka Yan) is a Chinese business executive who founded China Evergrande Group, once one of the largest real estate developers in the world. Born in 1958 in rural Henan province, Xu built Evergrande from a small property firm in Shenzhen in 1996 into a sprawling conglomerate with interests spanning residential development, electric vehicles, sports, and entertainment. At the peak of his fortune, Xu was ranked as the wealthiest person in China. His trajectory from rural poverty to extraordinary wealth — and then to criminal prosecution and the near-total collapse of his corporate empire — represents one of the most dramatic rises and falls in modern Chinese business history. Evergrande's default on its debts in 2021 sent shockwaves through global financial markets and became emblematic of the broader crisis in China's heavily leveraged property sector. By 2025, Evergrande had been delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and Xu faced criminal charges in mainland China while Hong Kong courts ordered the seizure and freezing of billions of dollars in his personal assets.

Early Life

Xu Jiayin was born in 1958 in Taihe County, a rural area in the eastern part of Henan province, one of the most populous and historically impoverished provinces in central China. His mother died when he was young, and he was raised in modest circumstances by his father and grandmother. The poverty of his upbringing became a recurring element in Xu's public persona in later decades, as he frequently cited his humble origins in speeches and interviews. Growing up during a period of significant political upheaval in China — including the later stages of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution — Xu's early years were shaped by the economic scarcity and social disruption that defined rural life in Henan during those decades.

Despite the limited educational opportunities available in rural Henan during the Cultural Revolution era, Xu was among the first generation of students to benefit from the restoration of the national college entrance examination (gaokao) in 1977 following the end of the Maoist political campaigns. He pursued higher education in metallurgy and later obtained employment in the state-controlled industrial sector before eventually transitioning to the private sector during the economic reform era under Deng Xiaoping.

Career

Founding of Evergrande

In 1996, Xu Jiayin founded the Evergrande Group (formally China Evergrande Group, 中国恒大集团) in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, at a time when China's real estate market was beginning a period of rapid expansion driven by urbanization, economic liberalization, and rising household incomes. Xu adopted an aggressive strategy of leveraged growth, borrowing heavily to acquire land and develop residential properties at scale. This model of high-debt, high-turnover development became characteristic of the Chinese property sector in the late 1990s and 2000s, but Evergrande pursued it with particular intensity. Xu's approach was to acquire large tracts of land in second- and third-tier Chinese cities at relatively low prices, develop mass-market residential housing, and reinvest proceeds into further land acquisitions, creating a cycle of rapid expansion fueled by debt.

The company grew quickly. By the mid-2000s, Evergrande had become one of the largest property developers in China by sales volume, with projects spanning dozens of cities. In 2009, the company was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, a milestone that provided access to international capital markets and accelerated Xu's personal wealth accumulation.

Diversification and Expansion

As Evergrande's property business grew, Xu expanded the company into a wide range of sectors. The conglomerate developed interests in bottled water (Evergrande Spring), dairy products, grain and oil, tourism, health care, and insurance. One of the most high-profile diversifications was into professional football: Xu purchased the Guangzhou Football Club (then known as Guangzhou Evergrande), investing heavily in the team and hiring prominent international coaches and players. The club won multiple Chinese Super League titles and the AFC Champions League, raising Xu's public profile significantly within China.

In the late 2010s, Xu made a substantial push into the electric vehicle sector through the establishment of Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group (known as Evergrande Auto or Hengchi). The company announced ambitious plans to produce a range of electric vehicles, acquiring technology and manufacturing assets from international suppliers. However, the electric vehicle venture consumed large amounts of capital while producing limited commercial output, contributing to the financial strain on the broader Evergrande group.

Rise to Wealth

The sustained growth of China's property market through the 2000s and 2010s propelled Xu Jiayin into the ranks of the world's wealthiest individuals. At the peak of his fortune, Xu was ranked as the richest person in China and among the wealthiest globally, with an estimated net worth that at one point exceeded $40 billion according to various wealth trackers. The listing of Evergrande on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, combined with the company's massive scale of operations and the rising value of Chinese real estate, underpinned this extraordinary accumulation of personal wealth.

Xu became a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a political advisory body, and was a prominent figure in Chinese business circles. His philanthropy, including donations to his home province of Henan, was widely publicized and contributed to his reputation within the Chinese establishment.

Debt Crisis and Default

Evergrande's growth model depended on continuous access to credit and a rising property market. By the late 2010s, the company had accumulated enormous debts — ultimately exceeding $300 billion in total liabilities, making it one of the most indebted companies in the world. The Chinese government's introduction of the "three red lines" policy in August 2020, which imposed strict limits on borrowing by property developers based on their financial health, severely constrained Evergrande's ability to refinance its debts.

In 2021, Evergrande began missing payments on its offshore bonds and other obligations, triggering a series of defaults that reverberated through Chinese and global financial markets. The crisis affected millions of homebuyers who had prepaid for apartments that remained unfinished, suppliers and contractors who were owed payments, and domestic and international investors who held Evergrande bonds and equity. The company's struggles became a focal point for broader concerns about the health of China's property sector, which accounted for a substantial share of the country's GDP and household wealth.

The Evergrande crisis prompted significant government intervention. Chinese authorities sought to manage the fallout by encouraging the completion of unfinished housing projects and maintaining social stability, while avoiding a full-scale bailout that might create moral hazard. The company attempted to restructure its offshore debts through negotiations with creditors, but these efforts ultimately failed.

Liquidation and Criminal Proceedings

In January 2024, the High Court of Hong Kong ordered the liquidation of China Evergrande Group after the company failed to reach a viable restructuring agreement with its creditors. Liquidators were appointed to take control of the company's assets and manage the wind-down process.

In mainland China, Xu Jiayin was detained by authorities in September 2023 on suspicion of criminal offenses. He was subsequently charged with fraud. Chinese prosecutors alleged that Evergrande had inflated its revenue figures by approximately 564 billion yuan (approximately $78 billion) over a two-year period, constituting one of the largest accounting frauds in Chinese corporate history. The criminal case against Xu remained ongoing as of late 2025.

In August 2025, Evergrande's shares were formally delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, bringing to a definitive end the company's presence on public equity markets. The South China Morning Post noted that the delisting came "at the right time as the Hong Kong stock exchange must maintain the integrity of listed companies and its own credibility."

Asset Seizure and Overseas Trusts

Following the liquidation order, the process of identifying, preserving, and recovering Xu Jiayin's personal and corporate assets became a major focus for the court-appointed liquidators. In September 2025, it was reported that China Evergrande's liquidators had been appointed to identify and preserve the assets of founder Xu Jiayin pursuant to a court ruling.

In October 2025, the High Court of Hong Kong issued a significant ruling ordering Xu to relinquish control of his personal fortune. The court placed Evergrande's liquidators in charge of Xu's assets, a step that extended beyond the corporate liquidation to encompass the founder's personal wealth. Reports indicated that approximately 55 billion yuan in assets were frozen, including luxury possessions such as a Rolls-Royce Phantom with the distinctive license plate 粤A98888.

A particularly contentious aspect of the asset recovery process involved Xu's overseas family trust, valued at approximately $2.3 billion (approximately 16 billion yuan). A judge described the trust as constituting a fraudulent transfer of assets, suggesting that Xu had used the trust structure to shield personal wealth from creditors. The unwinding of these offshore structures represented one of the most complex cross-border asset recovery efforts in recent Chinese corporate history, involving courts in both Hong Kong and mainland China.

Personal Life

Xu Jiayin married Ding Yumei (also known as Ding Yumei or Ding Yu-mei), who held a significant stake in Evergrande through her own shareholdings. The couple's family wealth was structured through a series of corporate holdings and trusts, including offshore trust structures that became the subject of legal proceedings during the liquidation process.

Xu's lifestyle during Evergrande's years of prosperity reflected his enormous wealth. Reports and court filings referenced luxury assets including high-end vehicles and extensive property holdings. Following his detention by Chinese authorities in September 2023, details of Xu's personal life became increasingly intertwined with the legal proceedings against him. As of late 2025, Xu remained in custody in mainland China facing criminal charges.

Recognition

During the height of his career, Xu Jiayin received significant recognition as one of China's most prominent business figures. He was repeatedly listed on the Forbes and Hurun Report rich lists, at one point topping both as the wealthiest individual in China. His membership in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference reflected his standing within the Chinese political and business establishment.

Xu received various business and philanthropic awards during the 2010s, and Evergrande's football investments brought him additional public recognition. However, following the company's debt crisis and his subsequent criminal prosecution, Xu's public reputation underwent a dramatic reversal. By 2025, Table.Briefings described him as someone who "could go down in economic history as one of the biggest bankrupts" of the era.

The delisting of Evergrande from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in August 2025 was characterized by the South China Morning Post as the closing of "a painful economic chapter," reflecting the broader significance of Xu's rise and fall within the narrative of China's economic development.

Legacy

The rise and fall of Xu Jiayin and China Evergrande Group has become one of the defining narratives of the early 21st-century Chinese economy. Table.Briefings noted that "no other company captured the gold-rush fever in China's real estate sector quite like" Evergrande under Xu's leadership. The company's trajectory — from rapid expansion fueled by cheap credit and rising property values, through diversification into an unwieldy conglomerate, to catastrophic default and liquidation — encapsulated the dynamics that characterized and ultimately destabilized China's property-driven growth model.

The Evergrande crisis had far-reaching consequences beyond the company itself. It contributed to a broader loss of confidence in the Chinese property sector, affecting other major developers including Country Garden and Sunac China. The crisis highlighted the systemic risks associated with the high-leverage, high-turnover development model that had driven China's urbanization boom, and it prompted significant regulatory reforms aimed at reducing the property sector's dependence on debt financing.

The legal proceedings against Xu — encompassing both the criminal prosecution in mainland China and the civil asset recovery efforts in Hong Kong — established important precedents for corporate accountability and cross-border enforcement. The Hong Kong court's decision to place Xu's personal assets under the control of corporate liquidators, and the judicial characterization of his overseas trust as a fraudulent asset transfer, represented significant developments in the legal treatment of corporate founders in insolvency proceedings across Chinese and Hong Kong jurisdictions.

For millions of Chinese homebuyers who had prepaid for apartments in Evergrande developments that remained unfinished as of 2025, Xu's legacy was defined by the personal financial losses and disruption caused by the company's collapse. The social consequences of the Evergrande crisis — including protests by homebuyers and unpaid workers — became a significant challenge for Chinese authorities managing the aftermath of the property downturn.

The case of Xu Jiayin also prompted broader reflection on the relationship between private enterprise, government policy, and financial regulation in China. The government's decision to prosecute Xu on fraud charges, after years during which Evergrande's leveraged growth model had operated with implicit official tolerance, raised questions about the predictability and consistency of the regulatory environment facing Chinese entrepreneurs.