 I have here today one of the long-standing friends of the World Economic Forum. And three numbers jump out to me, seven, nine, and 14. In 2007, Chairman Wang and Dalian Wanda helped us open the first annual meeting of new champions in Dalian, which we now call the Summer Davos. And he was instrumental in helping bring that meeting to China and being our host. In 2009, he built a new convention center, a beautiful, modern, high-tech convention center, where you really see China's innovation capacity and China's entrepreneurship in action. And it has really helped position the annual meeting of new champions as the world's foremost meeting on science, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship. And in 2014, Wanda became one of our first Chinese strategic partners, and we've had a fantastic collaboration. And I just want to thank Chairman Wang for his longstanding friendship between China and the World Economic Forum. And we're thrilled to hear your experience today on the future of sport and entertainment. So Chairman Wang, thank you, our moderator for today. John Mickelson, please join us on stage. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Chairman Wang, for coming here. I'll give a one-minute introduction for those people who don't fully understand the breadth of what he has done. He came from a, Chairman Wang came from a military family. His father was a war hero of sorts. He served in the army, and then he set up a property company in Dalian and built that into China's biggest property empire. But more recently, he is branched out into entertainment, into sport. He owns 20% of Atletico Madrid. He also bought AMC, the big movie theater chain. So if you watch a movie theater or anywhere in the world, it may well be owned by Chairman Wang. There was talk in America of him maybe being somebody who would buy Paramount Studios. He's right in the middle of all the things to do with entertainment and many things to do with sport. There's even talk of setting up a rival to the UEFA Champions League, which we all know whatever happens would be won inevitably by Lester City. I am going to start with a question. You know, you were a practical man. You made your money in real estate, served in the army. Why did you start investing in entertainment and sport? What was the reason why you went into that direction? The two reasons first. Real estate is a money spinner, but it cannot be sustainable and not stable. Therefore, we need to transition. Secondly, after development, we noticed that in China, in particular, people with money will go for health and entertainment. So entertainment is something that make you happy. Sport is something that make you healthy. And therefore, I've gone into tourism, sports and entertainment. Movie theatres and that old pastime, that that is an old way of consuming film, that more people will want to consume entertainment at home, not in movie theatres. No, no problem. No. This is something I... ...dispated this with Mr Mali five years ago, because he said mobile film will replace cinemas. But it's been proven that in China, cinemas are growing very fast in China. In 2015, about 12,000 more screens. In 2016, 15,000 more screens added. It's got the most number of screens in the world. In the last five years, the growth was about 30% each year. But this is not the same traditional cinemas now. The cinemas in China are all in large shopping malls. They aren't stand-alone ones anymore. And they don't just show films. There are much about experience. For example, you can listen to audio and there are much fun element to it. So cinemas are no longer the same concept. And in shopping malls in China, they are going in the direction of providing entertainment, providing experience. Shopping is reducing in its proportion of the business. So in China, you see that you go into shopping centres to buy entertainment. So cinemas have very good income there. You can't take a girlfriend to a mobile phone to watch a movie. On entertainment in China, in every country, if you own entertainment programmes, you often have problems with the government. You produce a show they don't like. How do the relationship... What has been your experience with the Chinese government when it comes to entertainment? While screening is not a problem, but content production will be examined censored because we all know in China there's a censored system. We also are involved in producing films, but it is much more relaxed censorship. It's not like in the past. There are now things impossible to imagine in the past, but screened today. Hollywood films, for example, good blockbusters and arty films from abroad can be screened in China. And also films in China are the same. In other words, there is censor, but it's much more relaxed. And recently, while three months ago, there was a circular saying that censorship will be devolved to regions and not centralised as before. I think on the number of American films or foreign films that can be shown in China, I think it's sort of 34 films a year, would you like an open market? Would you like that limit to go? Taoshi Jian. Well, there are two types of control. One is 34 million films. These are blockbusters. In other words, the investment is over 100 million US dollars. There are only 34. Basically, this is the money handed over to the US. Out of 34, most of it is American. So most people in China watch American films, not much of British or French or German. The next thing is buy up rights. In other words, there's less investment, but we can buy up the rights of distribution in China. This is more of the arty type of films about a few dozens of that category. So that's the overall control. But there's a new model now known as joint production. There's no limit. In other words, the foreign companies working together with Chinese companies to produce films. As long as the Chinese investment is more than 30%, and the cost contains at least one or two Chinese actors, then these films will not be on the control list, as many as you can. Example, to own an American movie studio, all those films would be okay. If it's co-production, there's no control already. There's a company known as Legend. They've just launched a film called The Great War. That film is not on the control list because it's a co-production. Any American company, as long as you have a co-production, as long as the Chinese investment is more than 30%, it will be fine. Do you think there is something special about Chinese film? You look at, some countries are very good at producing film. France began it, then America took over with Hollywood. You now have India with Bollywood. What is the special thing about Chinese entertainment? Do you think there is something culturally different about Chinese film? Of course, China has something special. Chinese films focused on the emotional aspect. Hollywood is all about the big-scale screening. The US saving the world, that type. In China, we don't see films of China saving the world. The story is not made up yet. Chinese films tend to talk about emotions, relationship between people. So China has something special, but there is something to watch for. More and more Chinese prefer to see domestically produced films. I see that trend already. For example, Japan, Korea and India, they don't limit imported films. Any Hollywood movies go in, but in Japan, Korea and India, Hollywood movies are not the dominant ones. So Chinese prefers to see Chinese films. I think that's going to be a trend. So if Hollywood wants to take up a large market share, they need to learn how to cater to Chinese tastes, not just those super people. For a Chinese film that could be exported to the world, that would work outside China. What? The Great Wall is the first attempt. The legend's production invested US$150 million. That's a big-scale thing. That's the first attempt of a Chinese movie going on to the world stage. There's only one US actor. The rest are Chinese. It's a story out of China based on the Great Wall. This is an experiment. If it's hitting US$200 million within China already, around the world, if we can hit US$400-500 million, then this would be a success story. It means that Chinese production, Chinese story, can also be a box office hit. But of course, we are still way behind Hollywood. We're just beginning. Do you make money from your entertainment business, or do you still see it as something that loses money but one day will make money? No, no, no. No, no, no. I'm a businessman. Of course, profitability comes first. So people in China attack me for focusing on box office. I can't do that. If I lose money, my company, I'm a listed company. Of course, we need to make money. That's the first. To how Hollywood began, the people who built Hollywood were people who owned real estate, they owned show theaters where people were showing movies, and then they went and started making movies themselves. Would you consider buying a Hollywood studio? As I said, people have talked about you as a possible owner of Paramount. Well, I bought Legend. There is a second line investment because there are only six companies as the tier one. Universal is very big, we know. Well, then we see The Great War. There are many films already. But of course, if we are able to buy one of these top six, that would be a great thing to do. However, these six companies are not in the silly mood, so that's an issue we can't crack. It became available. Well, let me just communicate that message. I would be a happy buyer. Does it worry you at all when you see what happened to the Japanese in Hollywood? I was living in Hollywood at the time, and I lived below... My house was below a man who worked for Columbia, or TriStar, and every day, more and more builders would come up to his house, bringing more and more wonderful things and blocking my road, all with the Japanese money that was being wasted at Columbia and TriStar. And then when foreigners buy American Hollywood assets, sometimes it doesn't work. Have you learnt lessons from previous people who have tried to do this? So far, foreign investment into Hollywood has not seen great success. We've seen Indian companies trying the Japanese and among others, but we are a bit different from them. First, we have a very large market. China is already number two in the world and still growing very fast. So if we were to buy a company in the US, we would not want to distribute worldwide Our objective would be co-production to show in China as well as the rest of the world. In other words, we would be able to recover a significant amount of cost from China. Secondly, we have an advantage. We started with channels in North America, Europe and China. I'm number one already. So we have the cinema channels. Therefore, distribution would be easier. So it is my estimate that if we were to buy something in Hollywood, we would stand a better chance of being successful than others. Big factor, as we all know, is politics. We have Donald Trump. He has appeared. He is not making nice noises about China at the moment. You have said that America shouldn't risk losing 20,000 jobs in the entertainment business because of this. Congress is looking at the issue of Chinese investment in Hollywood. How do you look at that? Do you think this is just protectionism? Or do you understand something about what the Americans are saying? This is certainly part of protectionism. So far, the US government has not launched any censorship or control of the entertainment. They've only done it to manufacturing and defence industries. But there are congressmen writing letters saying that there will be more examination and control of investment into entertainment. That will be a step back. That will be about protectionism emerging in the US. President Xi said yesterday already that would be bad for both parties, no winners. The investment into the US is a good thing. The main growth market of English language films out of the US is actually China, not anywhere else. A major source of income, the growth part, the new growth part will have to come from China. In India, it's a large market, but there's hardly any growth, nor in other countries. The main market is the English language films. It's in China. So if China were to retaliate, it would be bad for both parties. So I do not wish to see that scenario materialising. We have asked the chairman of the film association of the US to pass a message to Mr Trump. Let's leave the entertainment industry alone. No war, please. It is different. You talked about earlier that Chinese have limits on the number of American films that come in. Is the answer for both sides to have no limits, or do you think there is something about entertainment where people should be able to limit what comes in, what goes out? Well, in China, although we say there is control, as I said, there's also different categories co-production, outright purchase of rights. There are different channels into China. Just absorb some Chinese investment. Then there will be no control. In the US, more and more companies now are doing co-production. For example, they will just allocate a few films to be co-productions. That's a one way of bypassing control. But I would like to say that the US government, if it were to control investment, that would be a bad thing. If I was a Republican congressman, what would you say to encourage me to trust you to be able to run a big part of Hollywood? Well, I'm not saying Chinese over. It's still a company run by Americans. We don't interfere with the content. I just want a profit. I have proven that the purchase of US cinemas, after the people were worried about Chinese film cinemas, but we've proven they're still showing US films. There's no change. Therefore, I think there's no need for the worry. And I can tell you, Republicans are not worried about us. I think it's the Democrats. That letter I was referring to was from a Democrat congressman. Lastly about sport. When you went into sport, is that really a place where you can make money? You said you made money out of film and entertainment. Is sport, is Atlético Madrid really somewhere where you can make money? Well, clubs don't make money. They burn money. That is why they wanted me to be the majority holder. Number one, shareholder, I said no, I just wanted to be number two, because I have a few dozens of kids to be trained there. About 30 each year. I want them to train these young kids seriously. That is why I became a shareholder. When you go into sport, it's about branded events. That is why I've signed exclusive commercial deals with a few dozens of international organisations covering football, ice hockey and cycling, etc. Therefore, I will be able to bring them into China, events that were not there before. Recently, we did a football league game. This year, we're going to start cycling. Well, cycling tour. This was non-existent in China before. Also, we bought WTEC. So we're going to do triathlon, Ironman. So the idea, obviously, is to make money. Because I'm a businessman, I have to stress that. Working together with international organisations, launching new events in China, gives us one thing, exclusive. For example, I do a top tier cycling race. No one else can do it. If I do a top tier football game, no one else can do it. So that's our approach. My love for sports is too prompt. First of all, I do love it. I used to love football. Secondly, sport gives us money. I love money. For many people. What about football? What happens in the end? There has been talk of you setting up a super league, which would be more like a global league rather than just the European Champions League. Will we end up with matches between Athletico Madrid and a team in Shanghai? Will it be all the world, possibly except America? Is that the way that football is going to go? Soccer is going to go? No, no, no. I don't have the ability to do that. No. My thinking is that let's improve football in China. Make Chinese football slightly better. That would be very happy. Competing with Europe? No, it's impossible. World Cup. There was a joke in China. Ask God when China ever win and God cried. The same. If you look at all these things, you have been a sponsor of FIFA. Are you now happier with what is happening at FIFA? It started as a top tier sponsor last year. They were in transition, changing people. Kept changing. We met different people every few days, but I think it's settling down a bit. Recently, it is said that FIFA was going to expand the number of players, so that's been passed. I don't go very often, but it's one of my subsidiaries that goes to their meetings very often. Whether there is a fundamental change, I'm not sure, but I can see their objective of expansion is to make more money, because 32 teams and 48 teams earn different income. Therefore, that's one thing that you can see very clearly, that the new FIFA is more focused on income now. You have been very successful in real estate. You are obviously growing a lot in entertainment and sports. Where are you looking at somewhere else to go next? What fields, what industries interest you after these ones? Two. One, we are working on already. It's difficult to call it an internet company. We call it Internet of Things. That's an American term, but in China, I don't quite know how to call it. Some people call it auto. Linking up with physical, a brick mortar, linked up with internet. This is a company we are setting up. It's a big internet company, so to speak. Last year, there were 80 million members, card members of this company. Over 100,000 companies joined. It was very fast, but China is big, obviously. But the speed of growth still exceeded our expectations. Last year, the company proved that it boosted the performance of brick and mortar companies. This is the difference between us and other internet companies. All other internet companies are growing at the expense of brick and mortar, but we linked the two up. This is something that we are focusing on. A big thing. The company has very good earning potentials. Next year, we'll be in profit already. I've just discussed this with the Goldman Sachs and with other companies, for example, Google and Microsoft. They all think this is a good model. This has not been done before. The second thing is we are considering to develop a chain of hospitals in China. In China, healthcare has been the monopoly of the government. A year ago, the market was opened to the private sector, allowing private companies to set up comprehensive hospitals. Secondly, allowing foreign doctors to come to practice in China. A few months ago, there was a new policy. Doctors at hospitals are also allowed to take patients outside the hospitals to boost their own income. These are big changes, providing the conditions for private hospitals. We have several hundred large commercial centres in our portfolio, and we have the team to do it. We are now thinking, should we perhaps go into healthcare? These are the two industries. I'm talking about one we are working on. The other is being planned. American films in China, we have a limit on our distribution, and we have reached the end of our 30 minutes. Thank you very, very much. Thank you.