[2] Fortune described Ye as "China’s Newest Oil Baron" in its 40 Under 40 of 2016 while noting his close connections to the Chinese government.

[9] Biden also worked with CEFC on foreign deals, e.g. State Energy HK in Hong Kong.

[9] On the 16 December 2008, Shanghai CEFC Oil Group Co. Ltd. was established by Ye Ling  [叶铃], Zheng Jianding [郑坚定] and Su Weizhong.

[21] In 2017, the company applied to acquire 50% control of J&T Finance Group, but the Czech National Bank did not approve the deal due to insufficient disclosure of information on the origin of most of the transaction funding.

[24][25] CEFC also bought a stake of between 50 and 90% in Czech online travel agency Invia [cs] in March 2016, possibly intending to capitalise on the rapid increase in Chinese tourism to Prague.

[28] In September 2017, CEFC announced the purchase of a 14.16% stake in Rosneft, Russia's largest oil producer, for about $9 billion.

[29][30] However, CEFC was unable complete the acquisition and paid a deal break fee of about $257 million to the sellers, a consortium of Qatar Investment Authority and Glencore.

[31] In May 2018, CITIC Group announced they would repay 450 million Euros owed by CEFC Europe to finance and banking group J&T within days,[32] but since the debt was not paid a week later, J&T announced it had taken over shareholder rights and installed crisis management at CEFC Europe.