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Yang's rise to prominence, financial success, disgrace

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-11 08:00
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Yang's rise to prominence, financial success, disgrace

1991 - Yang Rong bought major stocks of ailing Shenyang Jinbei Minibus Plant. Through a series of capital operations, Yang established Brilliance China Automotive Holdings in Bermuda to acquire Jinbei.

1992 - Yang brought Brilliance China to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the first mainland enterprise to go public overseas, three days before the launch of China's Securities Regulatory Commission.

2001 - Yang was named the third richest man in China by Forbes magazine, with a fortune of 7 billion yuan. The assets of Brilliance, which controlled six listed companies, that year reached 30 billion yuan.

2002 - The Ministry of Finance issued a letter stating that all the assets of Brilliance were State-owned and belonged to the local government of Liaoning province. The same year, the People's Procuratorate of Liaoning approved the arrest of Yang as a suspected economic criminal. Yang fled the country to the US.

2003 - Yang filed a lawsuit in the US to seek ownership of assets held by Brilliance China. He claimed that his shares in Brilliance had been unlawfully expropriated by the Liaoning provincial government. However, the US court rejected his claim.

2009 - Yang said: "I want to go back to China." He then unveiled his ambitious plan to establish a new auto brand both in the US and China, making himself the most contentious person in China's auto industry last year.