A year is a long time in Tinseltown. At the end of 2016 Wang Jianlin, the chairman of Dalian Wanda, the Chinese property, retail and entertainment group, appeared on the front of the film industry bible The Hollywood Reporter, to reveal a startling interest: he wanted to invest in each of the big six movie studios with the aim of eventually acquiring one.

One of China’s richest men, Mr Wang, known to employees and colleagues as “the chairman”, had already earned a reputation in Hollywood for big talk — and for having the firepower to back it up. Wanda had spent $2.6bn on the AMC cinema chain and $3.5bn on Legendary Entertainment, the company behind movies such as Godzilla and Pacific Rim. Those deals were part of a string of investments by Chinese entities in US entertainment, part of a co-ordinated push under President Xi Jinping to change the country’s image. Wanda was one of its prime exponents: in an April interview with the Financial Times Mr Wang said the company contributed “significantly” to the rise of Chinese “soft power and cultural influence”.

But fast forward 12 months and Mr Wang and his fellow countrymen are in retr