BAIC denied self-owned brand influenced

Citing an unclosed source of the newspaper Beijing Times, after the detention of Yu Xiangdong, outside rumors immediately emerged that the research and development of BAIC’s self-owned brands would encounter many obstacles. Yesterday an insider of BAIC asserted correspondingly that the self-owned brands were not influenced by the ‘Yu scandal’. Their self-owned brands products would be published at Beijing Auto Show in next April on schedule.

In the morning of October 21st of Beijing time, engineer YuXiangdong was receiving hearing due to the espionage affair at the local court of Detroit District of the USA. That very day he asked for a bail to be grant but was refused. At present Yu is still detained in Michigan.

Yu had signed a three-year labor contract with BAIC in November 1st last year. After January 31st this year, his probationary period ended. Yu became a formal staff of BAIC’s general research institute and took charge of the works of CAE Technology department as well as body design of cars. A source said Yu was exactly in charge of the inner trim of the two self-owned brand products B70 and B80. The research and development of these two models was certainly suspended because of the detention of Yu.

Accordingly, an insider of BAIC clearly denied this saying. The person announced that Yu entered into the research institute only for eleven months and his work was connect with basic advancement other than self-owned brand car models ,which could definitely impose no impact on the development of new car models of their corporation.(Translator: Yalong/ Jessie)

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