July 15 is the 45th anniversary of the birthday of China's first homemade vehicle. At 10 o'clock, a "Jiefang (Liberation)" truck of the latest model was moving slowly off the assembling line of the First Automobile Works (FAW), the cradle for China's automobile industry. It indicates that the FAW has turned out 3 million "Jiefang" trucks of different models.
Named in person by Chairman Mao Zedong, "Jiefang" is a meritorious brand, a symbol for China's automobile industry and China's first auto brand with complete independent intellectual property rights as well. During the past 45 years, the FAW has, by bringing forward new ideas, developed new types of autos so as to make the brand "Jiefang" full of vigor and vitality. The recent three years have seen outstanding achievements made in middle-capacity and heavy trucks with a series of products developed, that include standard trucks, dump trucks, tractor trucks, special chassis trucks, etc. Now, the FAW has had more than 400 types of "Jiefang" trucks varying from one to 30 tons in the carrying capacity. It manufactured 220,000 "Jiefang" trucks in 2000, ranking the third of the world in output and sales volume.