Wanda Group Chairman Wang JianlinWang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group, speaks during the signing ceremony in Beijing as Wanda Cultural Industry Group buys Legendary Entertainment in January. (Photo : Getty Images)
Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group, China's largest commercial property company and the world's largest cinema chain operator, has cautioned the United States on the possible rise of protectionism and its anti-China policies.
An article by Variety.com said that Wang also spoke to MPAA chairman Chris Dodd and requested him to bring his message to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
"I've invested $10 billion in the U.S. employing over 20,000 people. If something goes wrong these 20,000 people might be out of jobs," Wang was quoted as saying, after giving a long speech on the internationalization of Chinese culture and the issues it faced in a world mostly influenced by Western culture.
During his election campaign, Trump had repeatedly criticized China, blaming the country for the loss of jobs and for allegedly manipulating the yuan to lower Chinese goods and services abroad.
U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer has recently called on Congress to look into Chinese acquisitions in Hollywood as he believed that the takeovers by Chinese companies such as Wanda, have been under the control of the Chinese government. Wanda has acquired AMC and Legendary Entertainment, and plans to buy Dick Clark Productions and Carmike (via AMC).
"This shows that Wanda has grown more influential in the U.S. Otherwise (the congressmen) would not have named us, " Wang said in response.
Wang, however, said that acquiring some Hollywood companies does not ensure more viewership or a better understanding of Chinese culture.
"Can movies from China rely on the distribution channels of these six (Hollywood major) companies to become more international? The answer is no," the Chinese tycoon retorted.
"To influence the global influence of Chinese culture we need to firmly establish our own means of transmission. We also need to establish a strong globally-recognized brand. Just having a method of distribution is not enough," Wang added.
Wang's speech was made days before the China release of "The Great Wall," the $150 million movie, said to be the biggest China-U.S. co-production to date. Legendary, the U.S. production company that Wanda acquired for up to $3.5 billion, produced the movie.
"Some movies are filmed in China and then the premiere is in Beijing or Shanghai. These so-called international premieres are quite misleading as they are clearly not global events," Wang said.
