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Ma Rongjie

Ma Rongjie

- chairman of the Bronson Law firm Asia committee of America.

(class of 1954)

Great lawyer Ma Rongjie who ties his heart to hometown
“There is always a headstream for a running river. What I have had today are all belong to the people of my country, and what I have achieved today are also given by the people of my country, it is natural for me to keep my innocent heart as a child of my country.” Said Ma Rongjie (a great lawyer who always has the courage to lead the way) affectionately, with an accent of Yunnan province when journalist interviewed him.

Although Ma Rongjie stays in America, he ties his heart to his motherland. Through 18 years before, he has welcomed more than 500 survey groups and teams from home country to America with profound care and hospitality. In order to import more projects, technology and capital to Yunnan province, he has come back to Yunnan for more than 50 times. In the year of 1994, when he was informed of the lacking of aluminized-paper for production of cigarette, without hesitation he was getting with joint factory matters. Having contracted with dozens of world-class aluminum companies, he screened the ALUMAX as partner. In the 17 months after that, he invited the American experts to Yunnan for more than ten times, finally he contributed to the birth of Yunnan Aluminum Company Enterprise with the total investment of 70.285million dollar. Today, this capital-import project has been in use, with a production of 8000tons of aluminum foil every year, which has met the needs of cigarette industry of the whole province. The contribution he has made to our country, especially to his hometown, has been highly praised by the society. He has been elected as chairman of the Western American association of Yunnan Province for two times, he is also appointed by Yunnan government as legal adviser of Foreign-related economic advanced and honorary professor of Yunnan University.

1950, Ma Rongjie was admitted to PKU Law Department with excellent grade, he became the first generation of law school graduation cultivated by the New China. 1954, after graduation, he was distributed to the Beijing High Court, soon after that he became one of the first three affirmatory lawyers in our country. The experience of working in the capital Beijing gave Ma Rongjie more opportunities to learn and practice, and broaden his eyes, improved his academic level, he also participated in the adjudgement of a series of important cases. In the high-profile trial “gang of four” counter-revolutionary group cases, Ma Rongjie was appointed to be the defense lawyer for Jiang Qing and others. The special role he played, especially the highly qualified skills, expertly lawyer business knowledge, and the articles about “gang of four” published on mainstream papers and magazines, drew many media's attention from all over the country and abroad. The New York Time reported Ma Rongjie at great length. A number of American Law Schools invited him to give lectures. 1980, Ma Rongjie gave lectures to America with invitation, successively being a law professor in two famous American Law Schools: University of Minnesota and UC-Berkeley. Compared with the American fellows, lawyers who cultivated by the New China are not take a back seat. In the first year of his teaching, he was awarded by law department as the “Distinguished Service Professor of Law”, enjoying the highest salary of all the professors in the faculty. When it came to expiry, he was also got employed to two of the biggest law firms, being senior lawyer, and director of China Board and Asia Board. Owning to his many year's excellent job and achievements, he has ranked up to the third lawyer among hundreds of lawyers in the Bronson's Law Firm, becoming the outstanding one of China lawyers who enters into the American Legal Profession.

After being lawyer in America, Ma Rongjie ascertained his business focus: joint ventures, technology transfer, contracts and trade businesses. Depending on his deep understanding of China and America, he has broadened the cooperation between the two countries and acted as legal adviser at the same time, moreover, he imported capital and many projects successively. After the project of Yunnan Aluminum Company Enterprise, Ma Rongjie is busying with another more extraordinary project between China and America.

Ma Rongjie serves his motherland heart and soul. He once said “My root is in China, I stick to three principles when serve my country—never dong things that damage the image of my motherland or hurt the feelings of the ZhongHua peoples ;doing any things legitimately, thoughtfully and rationally, never following the degraded phenomena and getting filthy lucre; keeping diligent, ingenuous working attitudes” Each time he returns to YunNan dealing affairs , he asks no more than the simplest reception;he never hesitates to point out the inadequacy of the present administration. He has many times provided propositions for the province Communist Party and provincial government that attracting foreign capital and techniques is the defective line in carrying out the opening up policy in YunNan,the priority should be given to nurturing a group of experts that are familiar with the affair concerning foreign credits while organizations are built, efficiency is raised, work to collect and manage information is improved.
As a oversea Chinese with permanent residency in America, it is not easy for to obtain such social status and achievement. I will grasp all the chances fully exploit them to make two feats for my motherland —introducing several billion dollars into China before retirement and becoming the No one to introduce foreign credits into China among those living outside China. the second things is being the go-between—a law adviser — and working for the jurisprudence communication between America and China. Mr. Ma told the journalist frankly.
The next day of the interview was the exact day of Mr. Ma's 63rd birthday. He kindly refused the proposition of celebration by his siblings and took the plane to Beijing early in the morning. He accompanied two American chancellors to visit the Supreme Court.