The governor of northeast China's Liaoning Province said Monday that Yang Rong, former board chairman of the Brilliance Group, is not a private entrepreneur at all, but an agent entrusted by the government to run state-owned assets in the group.

Governor Bo Xilai told Chinese and foreign media that the move of Liaoning Province to take over the state-owned assets of the Brilliance Group was to "implement government documents."

Wang Jindi, deputy secretary-general of the Liaoning provincial government, said that China's State Administration of State Property (SASP) issued a proxy on Sept. 30, 1993, which says clearly that the SASP entrusts Yang Rong as an agent to hold the shares of the Brilliance China Holdings Co.

Yang wrote an agent's statement to the SASP on the same day, confirming that the SASP was the sole shareholder of the company and he was entrusted by the SASP as an agent to hold the shares.

The ownership of the afore-mentioned shares was also confirmed by the finance bureau of Bermuda, where the company was registered, Wang said.

Yang also confirmed the ownership of the Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd. (CBA) in an agent's statement to the Chinese Financial Education Development Foundation.

Yang wrote in the statement that he confirmed he was entrusted by the foundation to act as agent to hold the shares of CBA and he irrevocably appointed and entrusted any member of the foundation's board of directors to represent him to process the transfer of the shares in CBA.

Yang said he confirmed the transference was an authorization with rights and interests combined and would continue to be valid even after his death.

Yang also confirmed the foundation had the right to annul the agent authorization at any time.

Liaoning Province took over the Brilliance Group's state-owned assets in March 2002 according to relevant state documents. During the process, Wang said, the provincial government paid high attention to giving play to the role of the company's former major executives.

Yang himself also made clear on several occasions that the assets of the group were owned by the state, and he was willing to cooperate and hand over relevant assets to the Liaoning provincial government, Wang said.

However, Yang disappeared suddenly in early June of 2002. The public security department later proved that he left China on June 3 with a fake identity, Wang said.

Staying abroad, Yang concealed his real identity as an entrusted agent of China's state-owned assets and described himself as a "private businessman being persecuted" in China. But, Wang said, this tallies with neither the facts nor what he had said before.

Yang was "fabricating stories and trying to mislead other people," Wang said.

According to Wang, the judiciary department has obtained evidence that proves Yang's purpresture of state-owned assets.

Bo Xilai said that Liaoning highly values private entrepreneurs, giving them great support and regarding them as an important force in rejuvenating the old industrial base in the province.

"The legitimate rights and interests of private enterprises in the province are protected according to law," Bo said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 30, 2003)