(Yicai Global) April 3 -- US business magazine Forbes released this year's Midas List yesterday, in which 21 Chinese muscled their way in among the 100 venture capitalists. 

Neil Shen from Sequoia China topped the running again to continue his reign as the world's foremost investor.

Shen successfully held off all comers and on to his crown after mounting the Forbes' throne as 'best investor in the globe' for the first time last year. 

"Few embody the Midas golden touch like Sequoia China's Neil Shen, this year's repeat No. 1. Shen's backed leading Chinese tech companies like Alibaba and JD.Com and e-commerce site Pinduoduo," was how Forbes hailed the once and future king when recrowning him.

The number of Chinese passing the touchstone test also sets a new record. The proportion from non-Silicon Valley areas -- China above all -- is swelling and gradually achieving parity with the contingent from Palo Alto and Menlo Park. 

Those who made the cut for successful investments in Facebook and Twitter, however, are starting to lose their touch and to hand their laurels to the next generation as investment in artificial intelligence, other new-wave technologies and Industrial Internet gradually becomes the new normal.

Among the top 10 rankings, investors from China also include JP Gan, the managing partner at Qiming Venture Partners in fifth place, Kathy Xu, founder and president of Capital Today, and Hans Tung, managing partner at GGV Capital in seventh.

The Midas List was born in 2001. The selection model in its first eight years was choosing the top 100 with the highest profit by collecting global venture capitalists' portfolio data from the preceding year. The name derives from King Midas of Greek mythology, who turned everything he touched into gold, so it is also called the 'golden finger' list.

Forbes teamed up in 2011 with TrueBridge Capital Partners, an institution active in data analysis in the venture capital sector, to optimize and adjust standards for rankings, calculation models and other important factors for the selection and this added even more luster to the list, which some have dubbed the Academy Awards of the venture capital sector.

No Chinese investors got on in 2011, which was the first year after the adjustment of the list's factors. A total of nine, eight and seven Chinese venture capitalists successively earned inclusion in 2012, 2013 and 2014, respectively. More than 10 have squeezed in each year since 2015.

Editor: Ben Armour