On May 14, 2015, the state sponsored Global Times published an editorial entitled "Success of Wang’s Wanda Brings Fashion Culture to Inland Cities"(王健林的市场宣示但愿西媒听得懂). Some excerpts:
Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, recently gave some long replies over certain public concerns in an interview with The Beijing News. Since Wang won the title of both "China's richest man" and "the wealthiest man in Asia" this year, he, his family, and his Wanda Group have come increasingly into the spotlight of public opinion. Some influential foreign media even described the rise of Wang and Wanda as a result of his "high-level network."
Wang didn't respond to the interpretation made by Western media. But he has reaffirmed for quite a lot of times in public that Wanda Group has been operating under the doctrine of "stay close to the government and distant from politics."
万达董事长王健林近日接受《新京报》采访，围绕公众关心的问题做了长篇回答。由于今年以来王健林先后摘得“中国首富”和“亚洲首富”头衔，舆论对他本人和其家人，以及对万达公司的关注不断攀升。个别有影响力的外媒以咄咄逼人的姿态解读王和万达的崛起，暗示是“与中国高层的关系起了决定性作用”。
王健林没有在最新专访中回应西媒的解读。他长期以来一直公开申明万达“亲近政府，远离政治”的信条，他在专访中强调，“这句话的核心就是要走市场，搞自己的商业模式”。
This screenshot was taken on April 28, and shows that Sina Weibo was censoring search results for "Wang Jianlin at the Intersection of Business and Power" (王健林 游刃于商业与权贵之间).
These screenshots show that on April 29, 2015, Sina Weibo began censoring search results for "Wang Jianlin New York Times" (王健林 纽约时报).
These screenshots show that on April 29, Sina Weibo was also censoring search results for "Wang Jianlin Xi Sister" (王健林 习姐姐) (but not "Wang Jianlin Sister"), and "Wang Jianlin Xi Family" (王健林 习家属) (but not "Wang Jianlin Family").
These screenshots show that, on April 28, 2015 Baidu said it was able to find an article entitled "Wanda Empire Wang Jianlin at the Intersection of Business and Power" (万达帝国王健林 游刃于商业与权贵之间) at the URL http://www.snslink.com/index.php/china/4zenV.html. The next day, Baidu tells users it is unable to locate a web page at that link.
These screenshots were taken on May 21, 2015, and show that a Baidu search for "Wang Jianlin" limited to the New York Times website only returned two results - the New York Times home page and an article from 2012. The same search on Microsoft's Bing returns over 12,000 results, and the first is a New York Times article entitled "Wanda Empire Wang Jianlin at the Intersection of Business and Power" (万达帝国王健林 游刃于商业与权贵之间).
This screenshot, taken the same day, shows the same search on Baidu's Brazilian search engine Busca returned no results.
