But his connections are not foolproof. Earlier this month, Beijing rebuffed Wang's plan to open a chain of large hospitals in China after he insisted on retaining control of them. Wang said he would try again for permission, and had already invited a group of top Chinese medical officials to visit his company's hospitals in Taiwan.
"My guess is it is the pressure from the hospital system in China" that caused the application to be rejected, he said. "I can't make any guarantees, but I will work hard on it."
Wang said that had no worries about winning approval for auto parts manufacturing, an industry China is eager to develop and where it already allows factories to be wholly owned by foreign investors. In wooing Chinese officials for the auto parts project, he holds out the hope of building even higher-tech cars some day, although the technology might come from GM or another big automaker. "The ultimate objective," he said, "would be to develop a fuel-cell car."
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