The Ministry of Justice has turned down the request of the lawyer of Yang Rong, former board chairman of the Brilliance Auto Group, for service of relevant judicial documents.

In August this year, a US court agreed to handle the lawsuit filed by Yang against the provincial government of Northeast China's Liaoning Province, the largest shareholder of the company. Yang's lawyer subsequently submitted the request for service of judicial documents to the ministry.

A spokesman with the Ministry of Justice said that in accordance with international law and norms governing international relations universally recognized, judicial bodies of any one country are not entitled to exercise jurisdiction over any other sovereign country and its state institutions.

In line with the first article under item 13 of the Hague Service Convention, which stipulates that service can be denied if the request for the service infringes upon the national sovereignty and security of the country being requested, the ministry has turned down the request advanced by Yang's lawyer and returned the documents submitted by the lawyer, said the spokesman.

A high-ranking government official of Liaoning Province pointed out recently that Yang is by no means a private entrepreneur, but an agent entrusted by the government to manage State-owned assets in the group.

Yang concealed his real identity as an entrusted agent of China's State-owned assets after he went abroad and posed as a "private businessman who was being persecuted'' in China, in order to mislead the public, the official said.

But Yang said he provided most of the money used to launch the company. Yang has obtained US citizenship and went to live in the United States in June 2002.

In October 2002, the Liaoning provincial procuratorate ratified the arrest of Yang as an appropriator of State-owned assets.

Yang is trying to retrieve his shares in Brilliant Group through his lawyer.

But officials with the Shenyang-based Brilliance Group said that they have no relationship with Yang now and have no comments on the case.

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