CITIC Group was founded as the China International Trust Investment Corporation (; abb. CITIC), a Chinese state-owned enterprise in 1979. In the 1980s, Chinese government founded many for profit corporations, which CITIC was under the leadership of Rong Yiren, a former businessman and politician at that time, who chose to stay in the Mainland China in the 1950s after his family business was nationalized. His son, Larry Yung, was the former chairman of CITIC Group's listed subsidiary CITIC Pacific. Larry also led the Hong Kong office and parent company of CITIC Pacific since 1986; Larry became a Hong Kong-based businessman since 1978.