BEIJING, Mar. 8 -- Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., China's largest TV set producer, made a top management reshuffle July 8 last year, with Zhao Yong succeeding Ni Runfeng as the Shanghai-listed firm's chairman.

    This management overhaul gave Zhao a chance to rejoin Changhong after he left the company for four years. Actually, for Zhao, he had never left Changhong. He always cared about the company even when he was busy with his business as the vice mayor of Mianyang, the city where Changhong is headquartered.

    Ten years ago, at the invitation from Ni, Zhao quit his job as a teacher at China’s prestigious Tsinghua University to seek a career at Changhong. Four years ago, he was named as vice president and general manager of Changhong but he resigned mainly because he disagreed with Ni in Changhong’s development strategies.

    Zhao is facing great challenges and difficulties in overhauling Changhong, once regarded as China’s TV king with a dominant market share in the country.

    Fierce competition from both domestic and foreign electronics makers, coupled with hefty anti-dumping tariffs imposed first by the European Union, then by the U.S. Government, had largely dented Changhong’s profit margins.

    To make things even worse, Changhong said in its 2004 interim report that U.S. retailer Apex Digital Inc. owned it US$485.1 million in accounts receivable by the end of June last year, accounting for nearly 98.6 percent of Changhong’s total accounts receivable.

    The firm is expected to post its first loss since its shares were listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 1994.

    Zhao was born in Mianyang, Sichuan Province in June 1963. At the age of 28, Zhao obtained his doctor’s degree in pressure processing from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tsinghua University. He did his postdoctoral study and worked as a teacher at the same department for two years.

    At that time, his wife was working for Changhong in Mianyang, a place far from Beijing, where he worked.

    In 1993, when Zhao was trying to move his wife to work in Beijing, he met Ni Runfeng, former board chairman of Changhong. That meeting completely changed the course of Zhao’s life.

    Ni’s eagerness to seek talents for Changhong impressed Zhao. Ni, well known for his ability in steering Changhong from a small electronics plant to the world’s second-largest TV maker, invited Zhao to work for Changhong instead of taking his wife to Beijing. Moved by Ni’s sincerity, Zhao accepted the invitation.

    Zhao began his career in Changhong as vice chief engineer and director of the firm’s techniques institution. He later became chief engineer of Changhong.