A senior Communist Party official pressed a button, the music blared and the first Chinese-made models of Britain’s historic MG cars rolled off the production line yesterday.

Chinese officials and staff of Nanjing Automobile turned out in force to watch a silver-green convertible MGTF sports car and two four-door MGT7 sedan cars slide on to the stage from a huge puff of smoke.

“Raise your heartbeat,” an executive cried out, echoing the slogan that Nanjing Automobile hopes will make the MG a bestseller in China.

The company does not hide its pride at having bought a brand it hails as a great British institution. “Iconic British car worth waiting”, a slogan at the entrance to the production line reads. The cars are even embossed with a tiny Union Jack, just as they always were.

Poor migrant labourers squatting on newly laid turf and workers brought over from Longbridge to help China’s oldest carmaker to recreate the MG plant on a field appeared equally awestruck by Nanjing Automobile’s determination.

After paying £53 million for the bankrupt MG Rover Group in 2005, the company swiftly packed up much of the factory and shipped 10,000 tonnes of equipment to China in 5,000 containers that even contained British benches. In a testament to Chinese ambition to become a global carmaking nation, a working factory has appeared in less than a year.

On one side of England Boulevard lies the assembly plant; on the other is the sprawling powertrain factory. Bob Taylor travelled from Birmingham three months ago to help with quality advice, and is impressed. “The sheer scale of what they’ve done in 18 months is amazing,” he said. “There was a firm belief that nobody would ever see the plant again. It’s a really weird feeling to look around and see exactly what we would see in the UK. It’s a mixed-emotion thing.”

Nanjing Automobile plans to produce 200,000 cars a year for sale at home and abroad. Commercial production is set for the second half of this year.

Zhang Xin, its general manager of MG, says that the company is keen to ensure the quality of cars rolling off the 3.5 billion yuan (£230 million) assembly line. “Please be a little patient. Quality is the most important. Quality is our life,” he said. He holds out the hope of expanding the range of MG cars as quickly as possible, but cannot say if and when new models will be developed. The last completely new MG Rover cars took to the roads in 1998.

A decision on the next generation of MGs may depend on Longbridge, since the company’s new owner plans to retain much research and development back in Britain. It will also keep about 250 workers, who will restart output on British soil before the end of May, at about 5,000 cars a year, using engines made in China.

The eastern city of Nanjing, once the capital of China, is in celebratory mood. Flags with the octagonal MG logo flutter on the bridge across the mighty Yangtze river. Six members of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra flew out to play Mozart, Elgar and Stravinsky, along with a Beatles tribute band, the Upbeat Beatles, at a show on Monday night.

Nick Stevenson, one of the directors of Phoenix, which bought MG Rover for £10 from BMW and paid its directors £40 million before going bankrupt, is an adviser to Nanjing Automobile. The day was a rebirth for MG, he said.

Mr Zhang said that the key market would be China. The sports model will sell for 180,000 yuan while the sedan will cost as much as 400,000 yuan, putting them out of reach for the average Chinese but affordable for many new-rich urban residents and government offices.

Not made in Britain

HP Sauce Named after the Houses of Parliament, the HP factory stood in Aston Birmingham from 1875 until 2006, when Heinz moved production to the Netherlands

Fish fingers Production of the Bird's Eye fish cakes and fingers jumped ship earlier this year, when its Hull factory closed and work was moved to Bremerhaven in Germany

Smarties When Nestlé bought Rowntree in 1988 production moved to Hamburg, ending 70 years of Smarties production in a Victorian factory in York

Hornby trains The first clockwork train was built in Liverpool in 1920. Manufacture stayed in Britain until 1995, when it was moved to Guangdong, China

Dyson vacuum cleaners Dyson production moved to Malaysia in 2002, making 550 people redundant, in order to be closer to suppliers

Sources: Transport and General Workers’ Union; Hornby; Dyson; Thisisyork; Amicus

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