China's Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has turned down the request submitted by the lawyer of Yang Rong, former board chairman of the Brilliance 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. Yang's lawyer subsequently submitted to the MOJ the request for service of judicial documents.

An official with the Ministry of Justice said that in accordance with the international law and norms governing international relations universally recognized, any judicial body of one country is not entitled to exercise jurisdiction over another sovereign country and its state institutions.

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

A high-ranking provincial government official of Liaoning pointed out recently that Yang Rong is by no means a private entrepreneur, but an agent entrusted by the government to run 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 disguised himself as a "private businessman being persecuted" in China in order to mislead the public, the official said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 24, 2003)