(Yicai Global) Feb. 22 -- The chairwoman of Chinese electronics firm Luxshare Precision Industry has elbowed aside the chairwoman of the country’s biggest airconditioner maker Gree Electric Appliances to take top spot in a 2021 ranking of China’s leading businesswomen released today.

Wang Laichun jumps to first place from ninth last year and Dong Mingzhu, who is also president of Gree, has dropped to fifth, according to US business magazine Forbes’ 2021 China Top 100 Businesswomen List.

Cheng Xue, vice chairwoman of the world’s largest soy sauce maker Haitian Flavoring, was elevated to second from 24th place. In third place was Wu Yajun, chairwoman of Longfor Group Holdings, who rose from fifth place last year, and Fan Hongwei, chairwoman and general manager of Hengli Petrochemical, climbed to fourth place from tenth.

The average age of the ladies on the list is 50 years old, more than half of them hold a Master’s Degree and above and a quarter have been educated overseas. Together they manage companies worth CNY12 trillion (USD 1.86 billion).

This year there were 46 new faces on the list. Most of the women work in the medicine and healthcare sector, which has experienced a boom due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The telecommunications, media and technology field was the second-best represented. Most of the directors are based in Shanghai or Beijing.

The China Top Businesswomen List takes into consideration Chinese female executives of companies listed in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and the US as well as those on the Forbes' Global 2000 ranking. It looks at the overall business performance, market size and levels of innovation of the candidates’ firms.

Editor: Kim Taylor