Rugao () is a

county-level city A county-level city () is a County-level divisions of China, county-level administrative division of the China, People's Republic of China. County-level cities have judiciary, judicial but no legislature, legislative rights over their own local or ...

under the administration of

Nantong Nantong is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Jiangsu province, China. Located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, near the river mouth. Nantong is a vital river port bordering Yancheng to the north; Taizhou to the west; Suzhou, Wux ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

province,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, located in the Yangtze River Delta on the northern (left) bank of the

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

History

In 411, the western part of then Hailing ( Taizhou) was separated from the county to create Rugao county, which named after a coastal village. During the

Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty ( ) was a short-lived Dynasties of China, Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 581 to 618. The re-unification of China proper under the Sui brought the Northern and Southern dynasties era to a close, ending a prolonged peri ...

, the county was merged into Ninghai county. Restored in 952, the county was transferred to then Tongzhou in 1724. Around the 1930s, Rugao was the most populous county in then Jiangsu province. Two county governments of the

New Fourth Army The New Fourth Army (N4A) () was a military unit nominally under the banner of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Republic of China, established in 1937 as part of the Second United Front against Japan. However, in practice, the New ...

were established in the then county: Ruxi (literally Western Rugao) and Rugao (1940–5, was renamed as Rudong by the CPC in November 1945), while the Tongzhou-Yangzhou Canal marked the boundary between the two regions, during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Ruxi succeed to the designation Rugao in 1945, the reshuffling of territory came true only in January 1949, when the CPC totally controlled the area. On 1 June 1990, with approval of the State Council, Rugao was turned into a

, which went into effect in 1991.

Administrative divisions

At present, Rugao City has one subdistrict and 19 towns. ;1 subdistrict * Rucheng () ;19 towns

Climate

Economy

In 2017, Rugao formed a joint venture with Steve Saleen and his business partner Charlie Wang (Xiaolin Wang, in Chinese), creating a company named "Jiangsu Saleen Automotive Technology" (Chinese: 赛麟汽车) in Rugao, with Charlie Wang as Chairman, CEO, and majority owner of the company.Saleen, Steve (July 31, 2020).
How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company"
''The Wall Street Journal,''Ryan Erik King (May 8, 2022)
"Seized Saleen Factory in China Slated for Auction; The Chinese government took control of the production facility amid a corruption scandal,"
''Jalopnik''. Charlie Wang had been CEO of GreenTech Automotive, before it went bankrupt. Only Nantong Jiahe, a state-owned shareholder, invested in the joint venture–it invested CNY3.4 billion (US$481.3 million) and owned 34% of the company; the other four shareholders of the company were shell companies controlled by Wang.Tang Liuyang (July 3, 2020)
"Saleen China Chair Protests His Innocence as State-Backer Takes Auto JV to Court,"
''YiCia Global''. The company was to produce and distribute vehicles in China for the Chinese market. CEO Wang said he wanted to turn the company into a brand rivaling

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...

. The company's only mass-produced model that it sold was the low-end pure electric

microcar Microcar is a term often used for the smallest size of cars, with three or four wheels and often an engine smaller than . Specific types of microcars include bubble cars, cycle cars, invacar, quadricycles and voiturettes. Microcars are ofte ...

called the "MaiMai", with a maximum speed of 100 km/h, which was introduced in 2019.Xu Dawei, Su Jiede (October 1, 2020)
"Electric Shock; As local authorities jumped on the new energy vehicle bandwagon, many found that lack of regulation and low barriers to entry are seeing a greater drive toward bankruptcy than profits,"
''News China''. However, only 31 had been sold as of May 2022. It had been built at a cost of CNY 5 billion (US$751 million). In February 2020, the company's Rugao factory was closed. The Chinese government said that Charlie Wang embezzled nearly $1 billion in state funds. Wang then absconded to the United States. The

Intermediate People's Court put the company up for auction on May 30, 2022, including the company's uncompleted production facility in Rugao that was supposed to be completed in 2019 and be able to produce 150,000 cars per year.Chengyu Yang (May 9, 2022)
"Scandal-Ridden Auto Brand Saleen to Go Under the Hammer; An international scam worth CNY 6.6 billion comes to an end, with the formal launch of the judicial auction of assets owned by Saleen Automobile. Its CEO is suspected of embezzling state-owned capital,"
''Equal Ocean''.

Education

* Baipu Middle school (1950)

Tourism

* Shuihui Garden *Lingwei Taoist Temple * Red Army Memorial Museum

Notable people

* Henry Lee, criminologist * Huang Beijia, writer * Xiaowei Zhuang, biophysicist * Zhu Meifang, materials scientist

References

External links

Rugao government

Rugao City English guide
(Jiangsu.net)
"Illustrated Album of Yangzhou Prefecture"
from 1573 to 1620, has illustrations of Rugao {{authority control Cities in Jiangsu Geography of Nantong County-level divisions of Jiangsu National Civilized City