HK businessman gets partial payout after 10-year fight over hijacking of Shanxi firm

After a 10-year fight for compensation, a Hong Kong businessman who says he is owed millions after his company was hijacked by officials in Yuanqu county, Shanxi, has received less than a third of his investment back.

As part of the settlement, he has been warned he must not go back to Beijing to protest.

Wang Wenjin, 65, set up Grow Sight Industries in 1992, and won the sole right to develop a copper mine in Yuanqu. According to papers filed during the long legal battle, Wang's investment was HK$12 million.

After the company had operated successfully for four years, the county government 'compelled' him to set up a joint venture with it, 'otherwise I would have been seen as a traitor to China', he said.

But in September 1999, according to the legal documents, he was muscled out of the business completely. The county transferred the assets of the venture, worth more than 100 million yuan, and those of four state-owned enterprises to a private firm set up by county officials, the Yuanqu County Wulon Company. He received nothing from the deal.

Then began a long legal fight that has cost him millions, seen him petition officials at every level from the county to Beijing, and left him broke. During his battle he has asked for help from the Hong Kong government office in Beijing and Hong Kong deputies to the National People's Congress. He tried to petition leaders, including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, but was detained by police.