In 1983, with demand for its rice cookers flat, Wang, partner Pan Ning and a few other cadres cast around for a new product to manufacture.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | China: Blazing Refrigerators

With the help of its tiny township government in Shunde county, its founders, Pan Ning and Wang Guoduan, turned it from the 42nd-largest fridge maker in 1984 into China's biggest in six years.

ECONOMIST: The scare stories��and the chaotic reality