Rong Desheng

statue of Rong Desheng in the Plum Garden

Rong Desheng (榮德生; 4 August 1875 – 29 July 1952), born Rong Zongquan (榮宗銓), was a prominent Chinese industrialist from Wuxi. He and his older brother Rong Zongjing established the Rong Family Corporation in Shanghai, which became the largest domestic company in the industries of cotton textile and flour during Republic of China (1912–49). After Rong Zongjing's 1938 death during the Second Sino-Japanese War, Rong Desheng took over the business empire and adamantly refused to sell his company to the Japanese despite immense financial pressure and death threats.

Former residence of Rong Desheng in urban Wuxi.

After the Second Sino-Japanese War, Rong Desheng was kidnapped twice by gangsters backed by corrupt Kuomintang government officials who tried to extort money from him. When the Kuomintang was defeated in the 1949 Chinese Communist Revolution, Rong Desheng decided to remain in mainland China and cooperate with the Communist Party of China. He was one of few capitalists well-treated by the communists. His son Rong Yiren would become a Vice President of the People's Republic of China in the 1990s. Another son, Rong Yixin or Paul Yung was a Senior Vice President of China National Aviation Corporation when he died in plane crash on Basalt Island in Hong Kong in 1948.

References

• Coble, Parks M. (2003). Chinese Capitalists in Japan's New Order: The Occupied Lower Yangzi, 1937–1945. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23268-2.