Chinese entrepreneurs will become global faces, says British documentary maker

China's top entrepreneurs, who have been the key driving force behind the country's explosive economic growth, will become the global faces for China in the next decade, said British award-winning documentary maker Nick Rosen.

Rosen, who is well known for producing documentaries about Chinese entrepreneurs and billionaires, said big tycoons always match their words with their actions.

Nick Rosen, who has made aseries of short films about Chinese Billionaires with Wang Jianling, China's current richest man, being his latest production, saystop entrepreneurs' deeds always agree with their words.

Citing Wang Jianling, China's current richest man, as an example, Rosen said, "He is a man who does exactly what he says. He said he was going to seal a huge deal in the UK. Immediately after Brexit, the deal was announced and his company purchased Odeon for 921 million pounds. He said he was going to be number one in five-star hotels and he became number one. Wang has a vision and stays true to that vision; I think that is the key to his success.

Rosen has made a series of short films about Chinese billionaires with one on Wang being his latest production.

He added that there is one thing in common among these Chinese entrepreneurs – they all have risen from nothing and reached the top in one generation. Rosen said their success has demonstrated the "Chinese dream", as their business exploded exactly the same way as the country's economic growth shot up.

Rosen is particularly amazed with the humbleness displayed by the China superrich, such as China's previous richest man Zong Qinghou, the founder of Wahaha Group, a beverage and clothing firm based in Hangzhou.

Zong's monk-like devotion to duty is legendary, said Rosen, adding "he emphasizes that he eschews luxuries and eats the same food as his workers at the workers' canteen. As we sat facing each other across the desk in his modest office, he told me that the money he had made was for society."

As a multi-billionaire, Zong still looks at all those expenses in the same way he did 30 years ago when he started his company.

Rosen, born in the UK, worked as a freelance journalist writing for The Times and The Guardian in the early 1990s. As he was always interested in predicting future trends, he made a career out of anticipating developments.

In 1994 he made a film about internet, long before it became popular worldwide. He published his book How To Live Off-Grid in 2007, as part of an ecological campaign to change the rules on planning permission.

Also, as it dawned on him in 2011 that the Chinese entrepreneurs were suddenly about to spring into international importance and become powerful global phenomenon, he decided to go to China to discover them as well as their stories.

Surprisingly Rosen did not find approaching these one in billion Chinese superrich daunting. "If you got a plan and you stick to that plan you will get there."As a result, he has been given close access to such senior figures, which he thinks is the best access Western outsiders have received to China's elite since 1911.

So far, Rosen has made documentaries with over 10 Chinese billionaires.

He added that leading Chinese businessmen can play a crucial role in government's policy making as Chinese government is very proud of its successful entrepreneurs. "They know they have really achieved something special and they've earned the right to be listened to," he adds.

Rosen said when Zhou Xiaoguang, the owner of the world's largest maker of costume jewelry, NeoGlory Holdings Group, based in Southeast China Yiwu, a place where tradesmen all over the world come to trade small goods, brought her opinion to Premier Li Keqiang to treat Yiwu as a trade zone, Premier Li took her opinion on board and made it happen.

"The success she achieved is a good understanding of the way business work and the conditions that are required for business to be successful. So she earned the right to be heard at that very high level and made sure that the condition was right in Yiwu and the local leaders were behind her."