According to media reports, China’s richest man is warning that “should things be handled poorly” by the Trump administration, 20,000 American jobs and US$10 billion (C$13 billion) in investments could be lost. Speaking from Beijing, Wang Jianlin, the owner of American-based movie theater chain AMC Entertainment, said he had passed along this message to President-Elect Donald Trump, who has threatened tough negotiations with China and a 45% tariff on Chinese goods.
Wang owns Wanda Group, a major property and entertainment conglomerate which has made deals such as the US$1.2 billion acquisition of Britain’s Odeon & UCI cinema group by AMC, completed earlier this year, and the acquisition of AMC itself for US$2.6 billion back in 2012. Legendary Entertainment, which is producing Chinese filmmaker’s Zhang Yimou’s “The Great Wall” and was behind box office giants such as “Jurassic World,” “The Dark Knight,” “Inception,” and “Pacific Rim,” was bought by Wanda last January for US$3.5 billion, and Wanda also has a pending deal to purchase the maker of the Golden Globes awards show for US$1 billion.
Wanda may also soon own the world’s largest movie theater chain, depending on the completion of a deal to acquire Carmike Cinemas for US$1.2 billion, and Wang has repeatedly show interest in purchasing a “Bix Six” studio such as 20th Century Fox. Wang, 62, has recently revealed that his 28-year-old son had no interest in inheriting his father’s US$122 billion business beyond the 2% stake he currently holds. Wanda Group is one of the central players spurring large flows of Chinese investment, with financial news and analysis company Mergermarket reporting that China’s acquisitions in the United States have risen from US$11.7 billion in all of 2015 to US$51 billion in this year so far.