At this time Rong Yiren (1916- ), a native of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the China International Trust and Investment Corporation and Chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce. At the turn of the century his father Rong Desheng and his uncle Rong Zongjing had begun to open private banks and other businesses in Wuxi and Shanghai. Later they had invested in flour and textile mills, machine-building plants and other industrial enterprises, becoming owners of one of the largest enterprise groups in old China and making important contributions to the growth of national industry. In 1956 all the enterprises of the Rong family on the mainland came under joint state-private ownership.