In my last blog, I drew comparison between Texas and China, and claimed that China hadn’t had a big enough disaster to over shadow Texas. I thought it was worth looking at one example where China is way bigger that anything in Texas.
Just before that, in a “world collides” sort of moment, while Americans seem revere Donald Trump as some kind of Hotel, Apartment, construction and entertainment wizard who prints his own money; recently it was announced that Dalian Wanda, a Chinese company, had bought the iconic American endurance sport company Ironman, or more accurately the World Triathlon Corporation that owns and stages the Ironman Triathlon races including the annual Ironman Hawaii. As anyone knows me knows, I’ve done numerous Ironman and half-Ironman races.
How does this relate to Trump?
Dalian Wanda has operations split into two divisions: Real Estate, and The Cultural Industry Group. Real Estate has been the engine of Dalian Wanda’s growth. It owns more than 100 shopping malls in 100 Chinese cities, and owns over 70 hotels. To make it easier to score, in the world of hotels and real estate development somewhere between four and six Donald Trumps equal one Wang Jianlin. (*1)
That’s right. Some guy almost every American has never heard of, Wang Jianlin, is worth four to six times what Donald Trump is. And, Mr Jianlin is one Chinese entrepreneur, there are dozens of them. Yet, Donald Trump, says he will take on China and win. I’m guessing he means with our money rather than his own?
With that in mind, enjoy Mike Pesca taking Trump to task over Trumps tweet on ebola in this extract from Pescas “The Gist” podcast..
I’m of the opinion that the press indeed give Mr Trumps xenophobic rants, and chest beating an easy run. Before careful what is wish for.