Dynasties & Power

Families who turned wealth into power, power into wealth, and handed both down — documented, dated and sourced.

Entries in this category (3)

• The Shinawatra Family — Four prime ministers from one Chiang Mai business house — a silk merchant's clan that won the votes of the rural poor, then lost power four times and kept coming back
• Thaksin Shinawatra — Thailand's telecoms billionaire prime minister, ousted by a coup in 2006 — who came home after 15 years, went back to prison in 2025, and was pardoned in 2026
• Zong Qinghou — The "cloth-shoe richest man" who dropped out of school, sold ice from a bicycle and built China's biggest drinks empire — and whose family went to court over it within a year of his death