Rong Family Corporation

Within the partnership, Rong Desheng was known as discreet and cautious, focusing on internal management and technical development, complementing his brother Rong Zongjing's aggressive expansion style.

Rong Zongjing moved to Shanghai at fourteen to apprentice at a native bank, then in 1896 started his own native bank with his father and brother before pivoting into flour milling and textiles in 1902.

Rong Desheng entered employment at the Shanghai Tongshun Bank in 1890, then co-founded a small flour mill in Wuxi with his brother in 1902 using savings from their banking business.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, after his brother's 1938 death, Rong Desheng took control of the business empire and, despite severe financial pressure and threats to his life, refused to sell the enterprise to Japanese interests.

In the chaotic aftermath of the war, Rong Desheng was kidnapped twice by gangsters reportedly backed by corrupt Kuomintang-linked officials seeking to extort money from him.

After the 1949 founding of the People's Republic of China, Rong Desheng chose to stay on the mainland and cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party rather than relocate his assets, and received favorable treatment as a result; his son Rong Yiren later became PRC Vice President in the 1990s.

Rong Desheng and his family received favorable treatment from the new PRC government; his son Rong Yiren went on to become Vice President of the People's Republic of China in the 1990s.