CHRONICLE

The richest in the Asian giant

• all the power, and his ties to the most powerful men in China

• He landed here buying the España building, he 25% of Atlético de Madrid…

• Ahora aspira a un 'Eurovegas Chino' on military grounds

• 
  
  
• Businessman Wang Jianlin
• JOHN PAULBeijing

  
  Updated: 03/05/2015

• At the end of 2013 the news agency Bloomberg decided not to publish a journalistic investigation worked for months by four of its journalists about the intimate relationships - supposedly unspeakable- of the leading Chinese tycoon,Wang Jianlin, with political elites. What seemed like self-censorship so as not to compromise its future business in China, repeatedly denied, It then caused a considerable journalistic stir. If months before the agency that had published exclusive reports on the hidden wealth of senior Chinese politicians, including that of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, I decided to take a step back, What was sensed was that behind that story there was pure dynamite..

  This week the mystery has been cleared up. He New York Timesresumed the investigation and published what was not wanted to be disseminated at the time. The open secret presented by the American newspaper was nothing other than the evidence that Wang Jianlin, distinguished model businessman, as well as one of the richest men in the world, has financial ties with, at least, five of the most powerful men in the country, including Xi Jinping and his predecessor as president, Hu Jintao, in addition to heavyweights from the Communist Party hierarchy. Links thanks to which they would have been greatly enriched.

  According to the research, signed by Michael Forsythe, former Bloomberg who lost his job amid the controversy, both relatives and associates of the aforementioned Chinese politicians areholders of Wanda Group shares -Wang Jianlin's business conglomerate- that are today valued at 2.486 Millions of dollars. Unlike in other countries in the world where sudden enrichment, suspected or supposedly illegal act of a direct relative of a relevant political figure does not necessarily incriminate him or her, in China it is linked without hesitation with it. The investigation, escribe Forsythe, "arroja luz sobre la turbia confluencia entre poder y negocios en las alturas de la economía china, donde la competencia es habitualmente distorsionada por los caprichos de los líderes del Partido Comunista".

  Wang Jianlin, the skillful businessman who - in view of the facts- He has known how to cultivate contacts at the highest level like no one else., is investing halfway around the world, taking advantage of the fact that its abundant financial resources and the crisis have opened wide the door to opportunities abroad. Lover of Spanish culture, football and cinema, owner in addition to a Picasso for which he paid 28 millions, Wang has set his sights on Spain in the last year. Y, more specifically, in Madrid. Its first operation in our country took place last year with the purchase of the emblematic Edificio España from Banco Santander.. Pay 265 Millions of euros, 124 less than what was paid by the bank in 2005.

• Another plan for Spain

• Plan to invest 100 million in the rehabilitation of the property, which will host 300 housing, a hotel and a shopping center. With hardly any time to metabolize the acquisition, came back with a bangwhen purchasing the 20% of Atlético de Madrid's actions, by 45 millions. ¿He will be the next Abramovich of Spanish football? And this week the horizon has begun to clear for his third major investment in the capital spanish: a fabulous leisure complex, housing, offices and shopping centers on Campamento military lands that are now military, on the southwestern outskirts of Madrid, whose investment will be around -according to the tycoon- los 3.000 Millions of euros.

  The Spanish Ministry of Defense, current owner of the land intended to house the macrocomplex, has just officially put the million and a half square meters on sale. With it, popularly known as the Chinese Eurovegas despite the fact that the project does not include casinos unlike the failed plan of the king of gambling, Sheldon Adelson, is now closer to being a reality. With investments like the ones it has and plans in Madrid, Sydney, Chicago, London and Los Angeles, Wang Jianlin aspires to become the largest owner of five-star hotels in the world. But ¿Who is this millionaire from beyond the bamboo curtain who promises gold and moro in our country??

  Despite his interests in Spain and beyond the pompous ceremony with Enrique Cerezo that made the purchase of his package at Atlético official, His public appearances have been presided over by discretion. ¿What do we know about him and his plans in Spain and the rest of Europe? Michelle van Vuuren, Wanda UK Marketing Director, makes a statement of intent while we enjoy tea in an exclusive café in London's Mayfair neighborhood: "quiere traer a Europa lo mejor de China". The Campamento macrocomplex, if you finally see the light, will in fact compete with its other large real estate project in the Old Continent: two skyscrapers 160 and 200 meters high already under construction that will house, respectively, a five star hotel and 491 luxury apartments. The investment: 1.000 million pounds.

  Wanda's London project is, next to the new United States embassy in the British capital, one of the two works that make up the largest urban rehabilitation project in London. Situated on the south bank of the Thames at Nine Elms, the two skyscrapers will be ready in 2018 and 2019. "La inversión en el hotel de Nine Elms es la primera de muchas otras que vendrán", asegura Van Vuuren, although Wang recently spread his tentacles in British lands beyond the real estate sector. Disbursement 320 million pounds to buy luxury yacht and boat company Sunseeker, whose Predator 108 Special Edition sailed at full speed down the Thames in Casino Royale, in an installment of the James Bond saga.

  Your personal fortune

  "Wanda tenía que comprar 30 yates para los tres puertos deportivos que estamos construyendo en China y creímos que tenía más sentido comprar la compañía", Van Vuuren advised, proving that in terms of power they have no rival. In fact, His business empire has shattered all records with its meteoric trajectory: from nothing to the second real estate agency on the planet with assets that are around 100.000 Millions of dollars in just over a quarter of a century. Its founder and new shareholder of the current champion of the Spanish League has, according to the New York Times, a personal fortune of 35.000 Millions of dollars. "Me doy seis años para convertir Wanda en a global company [let him compete] in the league of Microsoft and Wal-Mart", Wang declared., who after retiring wants to dedicate himself to philanthropy and an almost impossible mission: take the Chinese national team to the top of world football.

  El empresario modelo del 'telón de bambú' He has a personal fortune of 35.000 Millions of euros

  Born in 1954, this son of a soldier who accompanied Mao in the historic Long March of the years 30 for china, He didn't enter the business world until he was well into his thirties., given that His origins were humble and served for more than three decades in the Popular Liberation Army, spending several years as a sentinel on China's border with the then-enemy Soviet Union. Couldn't have gotten off to a better start in business., why in 1992 had the audacity to acquire a bankrupt state real estate company from Dalian city and, after refloating it, got into the China of the decade of the 90 in which almost everything was to be done- in the juicy business of urbanizing the new China.

  That Wanda's takeoff occurred in Bo Xilai's fiefdom, one of the strong men of the regime until his fall from grace and subsequent sentence to life imprisonment for corruption, feed thelogical suspicions. "Bo Xilai fue uno de los firmantes de esa privatización. The contracts he signed afterwards were all government contracts: the party school, the stadium, proyectos de infraestructura", Ben Richardson points out, another of the former Bloomberg journalists who worked alongside Forsythe on the scoop that never saw the light, during a date in Hong Kong.

  A factor that sometimes goes unnoticed abroad is that many of those Chinese model entrepreneurs who head therankings of the richest people in the world They started their businesses in the real estate sector. Y, in the Asian country, the owner of the land is none other than the State, which mostly means that it is the top officials who monopolize the process of seizing land from peasants and urban residents, as well as its requalification, what usually is a highly lucrative business. In that context, from 2007 "una cantidad importante de acciones de Wanda fueron entregadas a algunos individuos", explica Richardson.

  

  From humble origins, He served as a soldier and spent several years as a sentinel on China's border with the Soviet Union.. FAMILY ALBUM

  refers, Of course it is, to the entry into Wanda's capital of companies controlled by family members and associates of Xi Jinping, Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin (CCP number four) and Wang Zhaoguo who, As research suggests New York Times, they would be behind shares whose value today is around 2.500 Millions of dollars. It is unclear whether Wang's high-flying political relationships helped him grease future business deals., or if they were worth it to buy your future security. But the truth is that, amid Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign, that has smeared some of his former comrades and left a trail of corpses, Wang Jianlin has emerged unscathed and even more of a millionaire.

  And not only that. Member of the Communist Party since 1976, in 2008, one year after the share transfer, was admitted to the standing committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a high advisory body, in which his entry into the elite was certified with the approval of the senior leaders of the Communist Party. Since then has managed to build a true business empire. Among Wanda's assets there are 160 shopping centers, 55 five star hotels, more than half a thousand movie theaters (con 6.247 screens) and 68 karaoke. Its shopping centers, offices and hotels add 93 million m2, this is, one and a half times the total leased area of ​​Manhattan. Whileimposes strict discipline on his 110.000 employees, including fines of 100 yuan deducted from their salaries when they violate the dress code, aims to have net profits of 10.000 million dollars in 2020. This is, higher returns than Coca-Cola.

  One of the star projects is the pharaonic Chinese mecca of the audiovisual industry which is building in Qingdao, in northeast China, that in 2017 will welcome 20 film studios, hotels, a marina and a theme and leisure park for the modest investment of 8.260 Millions of dollars. Some of Hollywood's leading stars attended the gala presentation of the Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis, among them, Leonardo di Caprio, John Travolta, Nicole Kidman o Catherine Zeta-Jones. Which shows that its claim to be a global player in the film industry is serious, and not only because it is in negotiations to invest in the Hollywood studios Lions Gate Entertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. But because it also bought the American cinema chain AMC in 2012 by 2.600 millions more.

  Curiously, this acquisition that shook the foundations of Hollywood It happened not only in the midst of China's offensive to buy assets and technology abroad, but when Beijing had already understood that its growing role on the global scene cannot go hand in hand only with its economic power but must be accompanied by soft power.. That is why Wanda has received million-dollar subsidies to promote Chinese culture inside and outside of the country, somehow counteracting the western message and culture. With all this Wang intends to make Wanda an entertainment colossus capable of unseating Walt Disney.

  What is crystal clear is that the Chinese businessman called to conquer Madrid - and perhaps other areas of Spain- haslinks of all kinds with the authoritarian regime in Beijing.

  (*) Juan Pablo Cardenal is co-author of 'La Imparable Conquista China' (Ed. Criticism, 2015), recently published

  La camiseta de 'su' club

  He 21 of January of 2015, the businessman of 60 years he bought the fifth part of Atletico de Madrid. In his presentation he posed with the mattress shirt. One more line to a meteoric rise. According to Forbes magazine, with some 35.000 million dollars, He has the largest fortune in his country (last year it was the fourth) and the number 29 of the world (it was him 69). Married, with a son, educated at Liaoning University, Your investments are already global, They go from Beverly Hills to Carabanchel.