Early life Rong was born on May 1, 1916, in
Wuxi, a city near
Shanghai in Jiangsu Province.
Post Chinese Civil War At the end of the
Chinese Civil War and the founding of the People's Republic of China, Rong chose to stay on the
Chinese mainland instead of fleeing to
Hong Kong or
Taiwan as most businessmen did. His family was allowed to keep their business until 1956, when all private businesses became state-owned. His family was given $6 million in compensation. In the 1950s, Mao Zedong endorsed him many times for his contributions to the Communist Party. When Korean hostilities broke out, Rong's family contributed substantial amounts of funding along with considerable clothing. He was appointed the vice-mayor of
Shanghai in 1957 and Vice Minister of Textiles concurrently since 1959, later served as an
economics adviser for the
Chinese Communist Party.
Cultural Revolution During the
Cultural Revolution, he was denounced as a "capitalist". He lost a great deal of his personal wealth and was the target of
death threats from the
Red Guards, radical youth organizations aligned with the new social and cultural policies of
Mao Zedong. In a situation typical of disgraced government officials, entrepreneurs and intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution, Rong was given a demeaning job as a
janitor. However, he and his family received protection from
Zhou Enlai from persecution from the Red Guards. As Rong was not a Communist party member at the time, Zhou was not able to obtain approval from Mao Zedong to protect Rong officially. Instead, Zhou coordinated with
Chen Jinhua to place Rong's mansion under the control of Red Guards affiliated with the Ministry of Textiles, who were deeply sympathetic to him and protected him from other Red Guard factions.
Reform and opening up After the death of Mao Zedong and the end of Cultural Revolution,
Deng Xiaoping appointed Rong as an advisor for the
reform and opening up. He set up the
China International Trust and Investment Corp., or CITIC, in 1978, which was responsible for much of the initial western investment in China. At the height of the pro-democracy movement in 1989, he risked his life by asking the top Chinese leaders to negotiate with the students. A week after the
Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989, he called the crackdown "extraordinarily wise and correct." He was appointed to the ceremonial post of vice president in 1993.
Later life Rong retired on March 15, 1998, and died on October 26, 2005. He was listed as one of the richest men in Asia, with a family fortune of $1.9 billion in 2000 (equivalent to $ billion in ). Most of this wealth can be attributed to Rong's son
Larry Yung in his role as
chair of
CITIC Pacific.
Life and death He died of
pneumonia on October 26, 2005, at the age of 89. His funeral was held on November 3, 2005, and he was interred at
Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery. == Personal life ==