Li Hejun: From 50,000 to Trillion-Dollar "Empire Dream," How It Collapsed in 30 Minutes

In May 2015, a 30-minute stock price plunge caused Li Hejun to fall from the throne of China’s richest man to the bottom. Once responsible for creating a miracle of earning tens of millions daily, he ultimately became a person subject to enforcement. How did this impoverished boy from Heyuan, Guangdong, complete his transformation from 50,000 yuan to a hundred-billion-dollar fortune in just 20 years? And what caused his business empire to collapse in an instant? Li Hejun’s story is a true reflection of the collision between Chinese business ambitions and reality.

The Rise of a Poor Boy: From Reselling Film to 80 Million Yuan Net Worth

Li Hejun was born in 1967, with ancestral roots in Heyuan, Guangdong. Growing up in poverty, his ancestors were farmers, but this Hakka youth understood from a young age that only education could change his fate. Excelling academically, he was admitted in 1984 to North China Transportation University (now Beijing Jiaotong University) to study Mechanical Engineering.

During university, to support himself, Li Hejun began his first entrepreneurial attempt. In his sophomore year, he organized his dorm mates to resell film at the school gate, earning 12 yuan in three days. Though a small amount, it gave him a taste of making money. Afterwards, he was always exploring various small businesses—no matter how minor the opportunity, he wanted to try.

After graduation, Li Hejun was accepted into graduate school, but his desire for wealth far surpassed his academic pursuits. Shortly after his mentor’s death, he chose to suspend his studies and start a business. Around 1990, Li Hejun borrowed 50,000 yuan from his teacher as startup capital and entered the electronics market in Zhongguancun with ambitions to change his life. However, this venture failed due to lack of experience—the borrowed 50,000 yuan was lost entirely.

To quickly pay off his debts, Li Hejun abandoned his entrepreneurial dreams and returned to his forte: reselling various goods. From small items like mineral water and toys to large-scale businesses like mineral resources and transportation, he dared to do anything profitable. With this “second-hand dealer” spirit and the wind of the era’s development, Li Hejun accumulated 80 million yuan in less than five years. This huge sum became his stepping stone into high-end business.

The Profitable Era of Hydropower: How Li Hejun Leveraged Jin’anqiao

By 1994, a fellow alumnus in finance recommended a project: investing in private hydropower stations. At that time, a wave of building small hydropower plants was sweeping along China’s rivers and lakes. After research, Li Hejun saw bright prospects in the energy industry and returned to his hometown Heyuan, investing over 10 million yuan to acquire a small hydropower station with a 1,500 kW capacity.

This “money-printing machine” could generate continuous profits once operational. With an hourly generation of 1,500 kWh, earning at least 15,000 yuan daily, he could recover his investment in less than three years, then enjoy pure profit. Buoyed by success, Li Hejun began acquiring hydropower stations nationwide—Zhejiang, Guangxi, Yunnan, Ningxia—using nearly all his earnings over several years.

By 2003, Li Hejun’s net worth reached 2 billion yuan, ranking 23rd on the “New Fortune” list, and he was named one of China’s “Top Ten Mergers and Acquisitions Figures” for his scale of acquisitions. However, what truly made him famous was not these achievements, but a lawsuit with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

In 2002, Yunnan announced plans to develop the Jinsha River’s hydropower resources, aiming to build eight 1-million-kilowatt stations. Hearing this, Li Hejun flew to Yunnan and quickly signed agreements for six stations with a total capacity of 23 million kW—scaling beyond the Three Gorges Dam, shocking even the project officials.

But approval processes ran into trouble. The NDRC believed such large-scale projects were too risky for private enterprises and should be handled by state-owned companies. Li Hejun refused to accept this decision and directly sued the Yunnan NDRC with the contracts in hand—an unprecedented move at the time.

In the end, the court did not award him all six hydropower stations, but granted him the most valuable Jin’anqiao station—a 3 million kW capacity “big gold mountain.” Yet, reality was harsh: the initial investment was estimated at 20 billion yuan, but Li Hejun only had 2 billion.

To tackle this, Li Hejun fell into a cycle of “borrowing Peter to pay Paul”: selling small hydropower stations, obtaining bank loans, and continuously adding investments. For eight years, his daily focus was on selling off hydropower assets. In 2008, Jin’anqiao finally completed the diversion of the river, and victory seemed near—until the project was suddenly halted due to serious violations of energy conservation and emission reduction protocols.

Desperate, Li Hejun contacted Zhang Zhengyu, chairman of Hengji Weiye, for financing cooperation. Through this, Hanergy Group’s shareholding structure was adjusted, and he renamed Huarei Group to Hanergy Group. In July 2010, after rectification, the Jin’anqiao hydropower station was finally completed—an 8-year, 26 billion yuan project that became the world’s largest private hydropower station at the time.

Jin’anqiao brought in far more revenue than expected—producing 10 million yuan daily, with annual cash flow of 3.6 billion yuan. This stable income boosted Li Hejun’s confidence in the future.

The Solar Dream Shattered: The Illusory Prosperity of Self-Production and Sales

With abundant liquidity and success, Li Hejun believed his business model could be replicated in any field. In 2011, he aggressively entered the solar photovoltaic industry. Although hydropower cost only 8 cents per kWh, while photovoltaic power was 3 yuan, he saw market potential.

He faced two technical routes: polycrystalline silicon, with 15% efficiency but limited application scope; and thin-film solar, requiring huge investment but with only 9% efficiency currently, yet promising prospects. Characteristic decisions shaped destiny—Li Hejun chose the more challenging thin-film technology. He even declared in speeches: “We want to walk where others dare not go, not just improve technology, but create an industry!”

He committed 21 billion yuan to build thin-film solar cell manufacturing and R&D bases in Heyuan, with an annual capacity of 1 gigawatt. When he proposed sharing costs with the government, banks, and Hanergy, local officials’ enthusiasm waned—poverty-stricken Heyuan had no spare funds.

So, Li Hejun changed tactics, flying around the country in private jets, promising investments of 22 billion yuan. This “bluffing” approach surprisingly succeeded. Under his persuasion, Hanergy directly established nine thin-film production bases in Changxing (Zhejiang), Shuangyashan (Heilongjiang), Yucheng (Shandong), Haikou, and Shuangliu (Chengdu), with total investments exceeding 200 billion yuan.

The key question: how to sell the produced products? Li Hejun had his method. After acquiring a major upstream company, BoYang Solar, as a major shareholder, he directly sold its production lines to the nine bases, then Hanergy Group would buy back the products—forming a perfect self-production-and-sales loop. Essentially, the products were unsellable, so he used this “chicken coop to duck coop” method to inflate performance.

Unfazed by this obviously loss-making scheme, Li Hejun claimed: “If nobody wants to buy our stuff, I’ll just use it on my own power stations. That can last a few more years. When I need to repay loans, I’ll switch to better technology.” This operation made Hanergy’s performance appear to soar, turning it into a rising star in the market.

Stock Price Collapse and the Fall of a Titan: From First to Liar in 30 Minutes

Riding on false stellar performance, by late 2012, the Hong Kong-listed BoYang Solar was renamed “Hanergy Thin Film Power” and went public via a shell company. Li Hejun quickly became a leader in the global thin-film solar industry.

Even as the global photovoltaic market plunged into winter, with established firms like Sive and Suntech collapsing one after another, Li Hejun maintained rising stock prices through “left-hand to right-hand” transactions. Using this “free money” approach, Hanergy’s market value soared past 300 billion yuan, and Li Hejun’s net worth reached 150 billion yuan, making him China’s richest man in 2015.

But luck ran out at this moment.

In May 2015, Hanergy held a shareholder meeting, and within just 15 minutes, the stock price began to plummet. In half an hour, Hanergy’s stock dropped nearly 50%. An hour later, trading was suspended. Despite this, the market value evaporated by 1,442 billion Hong Kong dollars, and Li Hejun’s wealth shrank by nearly 70%.

His first reaction was that someone was short-selling. He tried to reassure investors, claiming the stock price would rebound soon—but that day never came.

Soon after, the Financial Times published an in-depth investigation, revealing that during a 25-month observation period, Hanergy’s stock experienced bizarre surges before closing. Occasional, perhaps coincidental, but consistently manipulated. More troubling was that in one year, Hanergy’s stock price soared by 1,048%, a rise that hardly matched the company’s actual performance. What was Hanergy’s real performance? “Self-production and sales”? “Left-hand to right-hand” transactions?

Once the truth was exposed, Hanergy had no chance to resume trading.

Reflection and Lessons: What Li Hejun Left for the Business World

Unable to accept failure, Li Hejun spent the following year establishing Hanergy Mobile Energy, attempting to enter the full solar-powered vehicle industry. However, due to lack of technical support, he held a launch event and then disappeared. He also launched products like Hanergy Tiles, Hanergy Walls, and Hanergy Umbrellas, but none gained traction.

Meanwhile, the thin-film bases under construction became a hot potato. Due to stock suspension, banks refused further loans, and Hanergy’s capital chain was completely broken.

By 2021, as the new energy industry embraced carbon neutrality, Hanergy Group, which once owned the world’s largest private hydropower station, collapsed suddenly. During bankruptcy proceedings, it was revealed that this once-glittering giant had been drained from inside, leaving only an empty shell. Not only was the company account zero, but the Jin’anqiao hydropower station, which generated billions annually, owed millions in debts.

Government agencies and banks that invested in Hanergy, facing unfinished projects and unpaid debts, sued the company. No one associated with Hanergy escaped blame. Employees who had joined the company in its heyday found that not only were wages very low, but they were also forced to buy internal financial products. As Hanergy went bankrupt, these financial products turned into worthless paper.

In response to employee wage claims, Li Hejun promised he had given up his U.S. green card and would stand with Hanergy—yet the reality was he couldn’t leave China because of restrictions. The once-richest Chinese eventually became a person under enforcement.

From Li Hejun’s story, we see a talented, perceptive, and ambitious entrepreneur. He indeed seized the opportunities of his time, building impressive hydropower projects. But his arrogance after success led him to ignore market laws. His “not short of money” attitude masked increasing operational flaws, and his reliance on false performance concealed the real difficulties—until the inevitable collapse.

Many entrepreneurs dream big and are willing to sacrifice everything for their dreams. But without a clear understanding of reality and a rational approach, they risk transforming from “very rich” to “very broke.” Today, the headquarters of Hanergy has been dismantled, and the story of Li Hejun and Hanergy has come to an end. Can the businessman who started with 50,000 yuan and earned 8 million make a comeback? Only time will tell.