Reclining in a beige leather seat in his Gulfstream G550 private jet, Wang Jianlin barks an unlikely order as the aircraft descends into a remote pocket of southwestern China.

From Beijing to Hollywood to London and elsewhere in his expanding property, film and entertainment empire, the chairman of Beijing-based Dalian Wanda Group is a stickler for formality.

He empowers receptionists to fine employees who fail to meet his dress standards.