Former Chinese vice president Rong Yiren (榮毅仁), a onetime textile magnate who joined the communist government and played a key role in launching economic reforms, earning the nickname "Red Capitalist," has died at age 89, the government announced yesterday.
Rong died on Wednesday night in Beijing of illness, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It didn't give any other details.
Rong was a wealthy textile magnate who stayed in China after the 1949 revolution and handed over his fortune to the communists.
He was persecuted during the ultraleftist 1966-76 Cultural Revolution but later rehabilitated when then-supreme leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) invited him in 1978 to help launch economic reforms. Deng called Rong his "Red Capitalist."
Rong created the China International Trust and Investment Corp, or CITIC, which became the main vehicle for the communist leadership's capitalist-style investments.
Rong was named vice president in 1993, becoming China's highest-ranking noncommunist official. He left the post in 1998.
In 2000, the US business magazine Forbes ranked Rong as China's richest businessman, with a fortune estimated at US$1.9 billion in CITIC shares.
His son, Larry Yung, also known as Rong Zhijian (榮智健), is chairman of CITIC's Hong Kong arm, Citic Pacific Ltd, and has a fortune estimated at US$1 billion.
No information about other survivors or funeral plans was immediately released.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
RSS