APRIL 28, 2015
HONG KONG — He controls thousands of movie screens around the world, serving more filmgoers than any other cinema chain. He has invested billions of dollars in real estate projects across four continents. He is building skyscrapers that will redraw the skylines of London and Chicago. He is shopping for a Hollywood studio.
There are as many as 430 billionaires in China, more than in any country besides the United States. But Wang Jianlin stands out, and not just because he is the richest person in Asia, with a fortune estimated at more than $35 billion.
As his real estate and entertainment empire expands overseas, Mr. Wang, 60, has emerged as the rare private-sector tycoon in a position to advance Beijing’s interests abroad, with clout in industries and communities around the world.
Prime ministers send him thank-you notes, and Hollywood’s biggest stars fly to China when he summons them. In March, at an event to woo foreign investors, he was one of only a dozen businessmen to meet President Obama.
How the son of a foot soldier in Mao Zedong’s Communist Revolution catapulted into the top tier of the global elite is an archetypal story of China’s transition to capitalism and the outsize opportunities it presents those with talent or connections — or, in Mr. Wang’s case, both. His story, though, is also singular: He built one of the world’s most valuable real estate portfolios in a nation where the state retains ownership of all land.
A yearlong examination of his success by The New York Times casts a light on the murky intersection of business and power at the heights of the Chinese economy, where market competition is often warped by the whims of Communist Party leaders.
Entrepreneurs have powered rapid growth in China for more than three decades. But even the most successful businessmen here must still reach some accommodation with the party, which only a generation ago operated a socialist planned economy.
Mr. Wang says he has prospered by delivering what ambitious party officials crave: choice real estate developments that propel economic growth and bolster their careers. In return, he says, the officials sell him the rights to develop choice parcels of land at prices far below what his competitors pay.
Influential Stakeholders
Relatives of some of China’s most powerful politicians and their business associates have acquired millions of shares of Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties and Wanda Cinema Line, both companies controlled by Wang Jianlin, Asia’s richest person.
People passing the heavily secured compound in Beijing believed to be the home of Wang Zhaoguo, a former member of the Communist Party’s Politburo.Who Owns Shares in Wang Jianlin’s Empire? Names Are Just a StartAPRIL 28, 2015
His conglomerate, Wanda Group, is best known in China for its signature Wanda Plazas, massive shopping complexes with cinemas, office towers, hotels and apartments. Since building the first one in the northeastern city of Changchun in 2002, he has opened more than 100 of them in at least 70 other Chinese cities, generating the revenue that now finances his ambitions abroad.
