Speaking of China's giants, I think many people first think of the Ho Hung Sun family, the Li Ka Shing family and the Huo family, these rich people who made their fortunes in Hong Kong and Macao, with news reports on the land of China widely circulated.
But in the Chinese's thinking logic, I am afraid that these people can talk about being rich, but when it comes to "expensive", it is always a little less interesting.
Just like the Corleone family in "The Godfather", although they have a lot of wealth, in order to be "noble", they have to climb the social elites such as parliamentarians, bishops and intellectuals to raise their social status.
Take the Ho Hung Sun family, the Ho Hung Sun family is a Hong Kong origin, but in Macau's gaming industry dominates, known as the "gambling king". However, the business engaged in is contrary to public order and good customs, and although it is legal in Macao, it is not a respectable business in the eyes of serious people.
Speaking of the Li Ka Shing family, Li Ka Shing's family is not so complicated, it is obvious that it was from Li Ka Shing who became a rich man, there is no long history of family glory, and because of the real estate business, it is also quite controversial in Hong Kong.
Next, the Fok Ying Tung family, the Fok family has a high reputation in Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, the Fok family has also provided a lot of strong support and help for the development of our country, and Fok Ying Tung has also held important national positions. However, speaking of which, the Huo family's dignitaries began in the era of Huo Yingdong, and the relative time was not too long.
So who is the real rich and extremely noble family?
There is no doubt that it is the Wuxi Rong family, the first giant in China. Mao Zedong once commented on the Rong family, saying: "The Rong family is the first household of the Chinese national capitalists, and they are the only ones in the world who can really be called a consortium." ”
There is an old saying that "the rich are not more than three generations", and many family businesses have verified this statement, but the Rong family has broken this spell and has produced talents from generation to generation.
The Rong family originated in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and has now come to the 30th generation. The real beginning was in the 30th century.
The ancestors of the Rong family began to do long-distance sales of small business as early as 1823, and Rong Xitai in the 29th century was also engaged in business, but then the recession, the Rong family once fell.
However, his two sons were rong zongjing and rong desheng. In order to make the family better, the two brothers dropped out of school one after another, the older brother worked as an apprentice in the iron anchor factory, and the younger brother worked as an apprentice in Qianzhuang.
Two years later, the two started their business with the money they had painstakingly saved. They first entered the flour market, achieved good returns, and then went along with the development and invested in the cotton spinning market, which was also very prosperous, and the two also won the title of "Flour King, Cotton Spinning King" and became the richest man in the Republic of China period. Since then, the Rong family has risen.
The second generation of the Rong family, Rong Yiren, not only finished college education, but also assisted the company managed by his father, inheriting the family industry and expanding the traditional medicine and freight industry at the same time, with the continuous development and growth, the Rong family's industry has also expanded to many foreign countries.
After the founding of new China, in 1954 Rong Yiren first decided to implement a public-private partnership, and then nationalized his assets, and in 1957 he served as vice mayor of Shanghai, vice chairman of the Municipal Federation of Industry and Commerce, vice minister of the Ministry of Textile Industry until 1959, and finally vice president of the state from 1993 to 1998.
After the reform and opening up, seeing that the country's development needs finance, Rong Yiren took the lead in establishing the China International Trust and Investment Corporation, which is the predecessor of the current CITIC Group. CITIC is the window of China's reform and opening up.
Today, CITIC Group has become the highest administrative level enterprise in China, and the largest financial group, with two banks, 5 securities companies, two fund companies, two insurance companies, one trust company and 2 major futures companies, and 14 asset management and investment companies.
According to the incomplete citic group, there are 175 first-class companies, and there are countless participating companies, with total assets of more than 6 trillion yuan and revenue of 70.659 billion US dollars in 2020. By 2000, the Forbes list ranked Rong Yiren at the top of China's rich list.
Rong Zhijian, the son of Rong Yiren, the third generation of the Rong family, was born in Shanghai, and has been infected by the business environment since he was a child, and even sent to Liangshan, Sichuan for a long time to work. After the reform and opening up, Rong Zhijian came to Hong Kong, relied on the 1 million Hong Kong dollars left by his father to set up the Aika Electronics Factory, and finally sold it for a high price of 12 million US dollars, and Rong Zhijian received 7.5 million US dollars, which was only 4 years.
Then the financing construction came to the United States, and co-founded a computer design company with three people, cashed out 48 million US dollars in just two years, and finally returned to Hong Kong with a value of 430 million Hong Kong dollars, and managed CITIC Pacific in Hong Kong, CITIC Pacific's performance is booming, known as "purple chips" in Hong Kong. From 2002 to 2005, Rong zhijian was the richest man in China.
However, in the 2008 "Australian dollar investment storm", CITIC lost HK$15.5 billion due to betting on the wrong high-risk option. In the end, CITIC Group helped $1.5 billion to plug the hole, but Rong Zhijian also had to leave citic Pacific's board of directors.
After leaving CITIC Pacific, Rong Zhijian established Longyuan Enterprise and held a mansion land on the Shenzhou Peninsula in Longyuan, Hainan Province, with a total construction area of 704,000 square meters.
The Rong family is also a prominent industrialist in Hong Kong, second only to Rong Zhijian, who served as honorary chairman and non-executive director of Founder Digital Group.
At present, the fifth generation of the Rong family has also successively appeared a number of Junjie, Rong Zhijian's son Rong Mingjie and daughter Rong Mingfang, Song Mingfang was the leader of CITIC Pacific's transition to the Internet, Rong Mingjie is the director of CITIC Pacific; Rong Zhikuan, who grew up in Brazil, is currently the CEO of Universal Brazil; Rong Zhimei, who moved to Germany, is the manager of Younik Company; Rong Zhizhi is engaged in textile trade in the United States.
The Rong family has successively appeared five generations of leaders, and the saying that "rich is not three" obviously does not exist in the Rong family. The family business is also growing and developing, and I believe that after generations, the Rong family will go farther and farther, the wealth will accumulate more and more, and its influence in China will become greater and greater. It can be described as the first giant in China!