"Two automakers, which have had different histories and traveled along different paths, have had great synergy. This is the result of a cultural union," says Kimiyasu Nakamura, president of Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. (DFL), on the six years of joint venturing between Nissan Motor Co. and Dongfeng Motor Corp. (Dongfeng).

- by Guo Bo

Zuo Yan'an joined the Jianghuai Automobile Works as a technician 30 years ago. It has since morphed into Jianghuai Automobile Co. or JAC, and Zuo at 60 has been company chairman for the past two decades.

- by Wen Jing

In the government's Automotive Industry Readjustment and Revitalization Plan, Chang'an Automobile Group Corp. is for the first time rated as one of the four top-tier automakers in the country. But Xu Liuping, its chairman, is sober-minded enough to say that this is "just the beginning of a new long march."

- by Yang Liu

For Qi Yumin and Yang Rong, the industry likes to refer to the two as "outsiders."

"People refer to me as an outsider because I focus more on finance," said Yang Rong. "But in fact, I know automobiles pretty well, having done it for 10 years. Ten years! I could've gotten any degree. My dissertation for the Ph.D. was accepted upon my first defense at the Department of Automotive Engineering at Tsinghua University in front of 11 professors. I wanted to prove that I have a thorough understanding of the automobile."

- by Zhang Gang

Qi Yumin was considered an "outsider" who took over control of Brilliance China three years ago, but the former deputy mayor of the City of Dalian has been able to save the State-owned company out of bankruptcy. He was able to turn the company around not because he had any secret weapons. Rather it was the result of his strong will, creativity and fearless pursuit of market opportunities.

- by Wu Ming 

Li Feng's capability of selling cars has long been recognized in the auto industry circles. But as he enforced his ideas and schemes, he inevitably infringed on the interests of existing sales executives and invariably met opposition. As a result perhaps, he finally parted ways with his college classmate Yin Tongyue, chairman and CEO of Chery Automobile. Li Feng has now come north to take up the reins at Beijing-Hyundai, where he is expected to confront a situation more complicated than that at Chery. Can he deliver?

Xu Heyi has been in the spotlight of the automotive community in China even though it has been only one and a half years since he became the chairman of Beijing Automotive Industry (Holding) Corp. (BAIC).

WUHAN, Hubei - Dongfeng-Honda Automobile Co., Ltd., a joint venture between Dongfeng Motor Corp. and Japanese automaker Honda, will start an expansion project to increase its production capacity to 240,000 vehicles in July 2008, according to a report in SinoCast China Business Daily News.