The China International Trust and Investment Corporation was established in 1979 as the first step in Deng Xiaoping's "open door policy" of economic reform. Deng chose Rong Yiren to form and lead CITIC, which would become China's primary domestic and foreign investment vehicle. Rong's own history was steeped in capitalism. Before the communist takeover in 1949, the Rongs had been one of Shanghai's wealthiest families, with control over much of that region's textile industry. Most of the Rong family left China when the communists took over, but Rong--who did not himself join the communist party--stayed in Shanghai and worked with the new government. Rong, and son Yung Chi-kin, were able to maintain much of their wealth through the 1950s. But the Cultural Revolution of the mid-1960s saw the family fall from grace. Rong was stripped of his property and son Yung was sent off to be "re-educated," doing hard labor on collective farms in remote regions of the country.