How did he become a billionaire in a Maoist communist country?
I am a Chinese miracle. He was destined for marginalization. When I was five years old, my father was sentenced to thirteen years in prison for being an anti-communist … and he committed suicide there.
How did you survive?
We were four brothers and my mother was forced to work as a watchman in an industrial estate, where she died of intoxication.
I’m sorry!
I took refuge in books … And at the age of 16 I read Don Quixote: I learned a lot from his follies!
Many Spaniards will never read it.
We were cubs of anti-revolutionaries and no one spoke to us, and I took refuge in poetry.
A verse of his that serves us all today?
“Your life is climbing the mountain / You strive, you fight / You make friends and enemies / You cry and laugh and one day… You get there / And what do you see down there?”.
…?
“Everything is cloudy and blurry / That’s life: don’t expect success or failure / Look for another mountain… / And keep climbing”.
And what was his mountain?
At 18 I wanted to go to university.
Didn’t you have to be a communist to go to university?
That’s why I worked for the party and the government in Beijing and went to university there.
In 1991, I interviewed a Tiananmen leader who escaped at NYU. Was it a massacre?
The party was divided, but Deng Xiaoping won, father of Chinese prosperity, who knew how to understand the future, open us to the markets and make China fly at last.
And you flew?
Many of us realized then that being a civil servant was no longer the best job and so I went from being an ideologue to a businessman and in 1992 I stopped working for the government.
Did Deng Xiaoping help him?
Thanks to him I was one of the first Chinese people in history to become entrepreneurs: we set out to conquer markets and China began to open its doors and prosper.
How old were you?
I was 34 and had no idea about business. The truth is, no one knew what they were in China back then. To begin with I sold toys and dolls; then I got into printing everything, until I rented an old factory and restored it to rent it at a higher price…
Then he rented another and another…?
I was earning a lot, until in the 90s I discovered Hongcun, a village untouched for 500 years, and signed a 30-year contract with the government to restore it.
Couldn’t buy the land?
You can’t buy anything in China; but I was able to lease it to the State for a few years. And I restored the village, which today is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Congratulations.
This year we have already had 3 million visitors and it is a big business for restaurants, hotels, souvenirs and shows, where the movie Tiger and Dragon was shot. And I discovered other typical towns, until we became the largest tourist company in China.
Did you study at CEIB with Pedro Nueno?
In Shanghai, yes, and I was a donor, about two million dollars, to this brilliant business school associated with IESE in Barcelona. I am also a sponsor and chair of the World Poetry Association…
Let’s see if journalism is also encouraged, which we are in dire need of.
As a mountaineer I have climbed the seven highest mountains on the planet and Everest three times and now I visit world heritage sites – like Barcelona – for my new project…
Want to buy something here?
I only give and invest to protect heritage in 160 countries. 6 years ago I started selling many company buildings…
Hasn’t a financial bubble burst in China?
…And that’s why we don’t have debts, but liquidity and projects. I have had a great team for 30 years and I want them to help me in the great new city we are planning next to Beijing airport. In China, the future is promising.
Doesn’t stagnant demographics – 1.375 million Chinese – hold back development?
The problem is often the concentration of power in too small a nucleus and the most dramatic is corruption.
Are you a party member?
Today I am just a businessman. We have invested a lot in the US and now I am looking for other opportunities for poetry – including mine, which I will now translate into Spanish and it is already in French – and business: these are ways to grow together.
Where are you trading now?
I am now negotiating for the Norwegian Government to return Chinese works from their museums, and one day climbing a peak in Tibet I discovered a Buddhist temple, my faith, and I finance its reconstruction… I continue to search for poetry, business, heritage and friends.
