Dalian Wanda's Wang Jianlin avoids politics, stays close to government

Mainland billionaire Wang Jianlin is speeding up global expansion at a time when the economy of the port city of Dalian, where the property tycoon started his business empire, is quickly sinking.

But they shared success from the late 1980s until the 2012 downfall of Bo Xilai, the disgraced former Communist Party Politburo member princeling who was behind Dalian's rise.

Annual economic growth in the northeastern city slowed to 6.2 per cent in the first three quarters of this year, less than half the 13.5 per cent achieved in 2011.

Wang's empire and wealth kept snowballing, leaving others to speculate on how he grew and protected his businesses, now spanning everything from shopping malls and cinemas to tourism parks. Little is publicly known. He is listed by as mainland China's fourth-richest person with a net worth of US$13.2 billion as of October. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index this week put his wealth at US$24.8 billion, and ranked him as the third-richest person in Asia, behind Alibaba's Jack Ma Yun and Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing.

"Make friends with the governments, but stay away from politics," was the secret to his success, Wang was quoted as saying in an article in magazine last year.

Wang moved the headquarters of Dalian Wanda Group, fully owned by himself and his son, to Beijing in 2008.