General Motor's sales up 20 pct

GM's China commercial vehicle JV Jan sales up 20 pct

SHANGHAI, Feb 5 (Reuters) - General Motors said on Thursday its commercial vehicle venture in China sold 19.7 percent more vehicles in January than a year earlier, helped largely by sales of the Wuling Sunshine minivans.

SAIC-GM-Wuling -- a three-way tie-up among GM, SAIC Motor and Liuzhou Wuling Automobile -- sold 75,168 vehicles in the month, including about 47,000 Sunshine minivans, GM said in a statement. The venture, in which GM holds a 34 percent stake, made up 59.22 percent of the U.S. automaker's overall sales in China in 2008.

GM also operates a car manufacturing venture in Shanghai with SAIC, China's largest auto maker, but the venture's January sales data has not been released. (Reporting by Fang Yan; Editing ken wills)