Chapter 51 Brilliance Memorabilia

In July 1991, Yang Rong bought 46 million shares of Shenyang Jinbei Bus Factory at the original stock price. In July 1992, A shares of Jinbei Automobile were listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. In October, Brilliance Corporation, with Jinbei Bus as its main asset, was successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange. As the "first stock in a socialist country", it caused a great sensation on Wall Street. Since 1995, Yang Rong has taken over the management of Jinbei Bus as a major shareholder, developed a new type of "Haishi" brand passenger car, defeated Changchun FAW's "Jiefang" van, and became the number one car brand in the light bus market.

At the end of 1997, Yang Rong began planning to introduce German technology and equipment, announcing the establishment of a production line with an annual output of 100,000 cars. In March 1999, Brilliance took control of Shenhua Industrial, an old listed company in Shanghai, and changed its name to "Brilliance Group". In October, "Brilliance China" was successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.Yang Rong announced that he will spend 4 billion yuan within 5 years to build the Chinese people's own cars. Since 2000, Brilliance has cooperated with five internationally renowned automobile companies including BMW, GM and Mitsubishi to implement the "Five Golden Flowers" project.

In December 2000, the first generation of "Zhonghua" brand cars rolled off the assembly line in Shenyang.Brilliance achieved sales revenue of 6.3 billion yuan and an after-tax profit of 1.8 billion yuan that year, second only to Shanghai Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen in the automotive industry. Around 2001, Yang Rong created a "Brilliance Group" with a market value of 24.6 billion yuan. It has 5 listed companies and 158 various affiliated companies, of which 138 are holdings. In the summer of 2001, Yang Rong negotiated a joint venture project with British Rover Motor Company and decided to set up a new factory in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province.In the "China Rich List" published by "Forbes" magazine, Yang Rong ranked third with assets of 7 billion yuan, after the Liu brothers of the Hope Group and Yang Bin of the Eurasia Group.

In the autumn of 2001, Brilliance Assets Reception Working Group was established in Liaoning Province.The Liaoning provincial government negotiated with Yang Rong on the nature of Brilliance's assets. On March 11, 2002, negotiations broke down.The Enterprise Department of the Ministry of Finance issued an official letter to transfer all Brilliance and its derivative companies to the Liaoning Provincial Government at one time.The official letter called for "grasp the time to audit to prevent the loss of state-owned assets." In May 2002, Yang Rong went to the United States but never returned. In June, Brilliance Auto's board of directors dismissed him from his positions as chairman and president of the company.Yang Rong sold all his Brilliance China stocks in the Hong Kong stock market to cash out.

On October 14, 2002, Yang Rong sued the China Financial Education Development Foundation and the Ministry of Finance. The disputed object of the direct litigation amounted to 2 billion yuan, making it the largest property rights dispute since the founding of New China. Four days later, the People's Procuratorate of Liaoning Province issued a global arrest warrant for suspected economic crimes, formally arresting Yang Rong. In 2004, Brilliance China's profit dropped from 900 million yuan three years ago to 48.6 million yuan, a drop that shocked the industry. In August 2005, Yang Rong was interviewed by "Chinese Entrepreneur" and claimed that "if I really have the opportunity to take over Brilliance, I will not look back. I would rather lose my life and save its 'Waterloo'".

By the end of 2005, the top management of Brilliance had changed four times in more than three years. In January 2006, Qi Yumin, deputy mayor of Dalian, became the chairman of Brilliance Holdings.At that time, Brilliance lost nearly 400 million yuan, and the factory production was almost at a standstill.He tried to revive Brilliance's former glory. In March 2007, the 1.8T Zhonghua sedan with self-developed technology was launched.