Four people from mainland China made it onto Fow24news.com 100 Most Influential People of 2017 list. Which seems a tad low considering that the list also includes James Corden, Tom Brady and Margot Robbie.
But at least they made room for Fan Bingbing, one of the world's highest-paid actresses and a plastic surgery icon who most outside of China know for her role in X-Men: Days of Future Past. "The first thing I noticed when I met Fan Bingbing was her inner strength, which was exuded so effortlessly it was difficult to take my eyes off her," writes fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg about Fan whose cleavage once got a popular show temporarily pulled off the air.
Once again, Xi Jinping made an appearence on the list. Xi showed off his great influence earlier this month with a brief, 10-minute-long Chinese-Korean history lesson. "Fascinating, smart, forever the iconoclast breaking the mold, Xi Jinping has a confident determination to assert a new role for China on the world stage," former US secretary of state John Kerry writes about Xi.
Joining Xi on the list is fellow Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Qishan, China's top graft buster who is often considered the second most powerful man in Beijing and definitely doesn't believe in ghosts. "At home and abroad, Wang is known as a straight shooter. Today, no Chinese wants to be in his sights," writes Zoher Abdoolcarim, TIME's Asia editor.
Meanwhile, China's titans of industry were represented this year by Jean Liu (Liu Qing), the president of Didi Chuxing, China's leading ride-hailing service. "Jean Liu is a disrupter, and not only through her ambitious effort to change the way people in China commute, travel and connect with one another," writes Apple CEO Tim Cook who Liu gave a ride to in Beijing last year after Apple invested $1 billion into her company.
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