Shin Kong Mitsukoshi executive barred from leaving China: report

By Agence France-Presse
September 02, 2007

The head of the Taiwan-based Shin Kong Mitsukoshi department store chain's Beijing operation has been barred from leaving China over a management dispute, a report here said Saturday.

Steven Wu, general manager of Shin Kong Mitsukoshi's Beijing New Life Square, was escorted by Chinese police out off an airplane when he was planning to return to Taiwan last Sunday, the United Daily News said.

The paper said Wu has been barred by Chinese authorities from leaving Beijing.

It said Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, which invested 12 billion Taiwan dollars (363 million US) in the store, is trying to resolve a dispute over management issues with its mainland partner, Beijing Hualian Group.

The report cited sources as saying that the dispute erupted when Beijing Hualian Group suspected problems involving construction payments and doubted the Taiwanese company's management rights during a board meeting last week.

Beijing Hualian Group, which hopes that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi will "only be an investor," assigned some 200 security guards to "take over" the store launched in April and verbally fired all Taiwanese executives, it said.

Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, Taiwan's largest retailer, is appealing to relevant Chinese authorities over the dispute.