Exiled Yang Rong wants to bring green car to China

He was a pioneer of China's car industry, listed the first Chinese company on the New York Stock Exchange and helped to bring BMW, General Motors and Renault to China. Then he fled to the United States to escape arrest, after a dispute over ownership of the company he had created.

Now Yang Rong has announced an ambitious plan to produce three million clean-energy cars a year in the US and six million clean-tech engines a year in China.

He has lived in exile for more than seven years, unable to return to China because of an arrest warrant issued by the Liaoning provincial government.

'In eight years, the war should be over. I should return,' he said during an interview with the Economic Observer at his luxury mansion in Los Angeles in late January. 'Making a new car is the dream of many Chinese.'

The interview was part of a high public profile during the last two weeks - the opposite of a corrupt official hiding from justice behind the protection of highly paid US immigration lawyers. It is part of his bid to become a major player in the global auto market and win a triumphant return to China.

'I am a Chinese. In my heart, the ties with China can never be broken. But now I look higher and further. I want to do things for China on a global scale. I have wasted seven years. I must accelerate the work, to make up for the time I have lost,' he said.