Zhu Rongji, the steely former Chinese Premier who steered China toward Western market principles and championed its entry into the World Trade Organization, has died at the age of 97. According to the official Xinhua News Agency, Zhu died on Wednesday after an illness in Beijing. He is survived by his wife and their two children, as reported by CNN.
Former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji Dies at 97
Known widely as China’s “economic czar” or the iron-fisted premier,
Zhu served as vice premier from 1991 to 1998 and then as premier from 1998 to early 2003 under late leader Jiang Zemin. He moved to Beijing in 1991 after serving as the mayor of Shanghai, taking personal charge of central banking, financial regulation, agricultural policy, and a sprawling system of state-owned enterprises.
Bold Economic Overhauls and WTO Accession
During his tenure overseeing economic policy, Zhu pushed through a barrage of reforms to liberalize the economy and transform China from a centrally planned backwater into a global economic powerhouse. He dragged back the Chinese economy from overheating in the early 1990s, tamed rampant inflation, overhauled the currency system, and weathered the country through Asia’s financial crisis in 1997.
His domestic structural changes included wrenching tax power from local officials to the central government, shaking up bloated state sectors by shutting or privatizing many state-owned firms, and launching housing ownership reforms that sparked a real-estate boom. These aggressive policies were controversial and carried immense human costs, including an estimated 40 million workers laid off from streamlined state enterprises.
Internationally, Zhu was best remembered for leading China’s gruelling negotiations to secure accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001. At the time, many domestic officials feared he had made excessive concessions that would hobble the economy, but the entry paved the way for the double-digit growth that fueled China’s rise.
Early Life and Political Upheavals
Born in the southern province of Hunan, Zhu graduated from Tsinghua University with a degree in electrical engineering and initially landed a job at the state planning agency. His early career was repeatedly upended by political upheavals during the Mao Zedong era. He was expelled from the Communist Party in the late 1950s for criticizing government economic policies and was purged again a decade later during the Cultural Revolution.
Following Mao’s death, Zhu was politically rehabilitated, allowed to rejoin the Communist Party, and eventually rose through a string of economic posts until his tenure as Shanghai mayor caught national attention.
Blunt Rhetoric and Legacy
Zhu was renowned for his sharp tongue, quick wit, hot temper, and an uncompromising approach that earned him both admirers and enemies. Eschewing scripted speeches typical of officials, he famously declared at a 1998 press conference: No matter whether there is a minefield or an abyss ahead of me, I will move forward without hesitation, and I will do my best until I die.
His blunt commentary and speeches later became best-sellers, notably in a four-volume selection published in 2011 that highlighted systemic problems like local government debt, reckless bank loans, and corruption. In the foreword to an anthology of Zhu’s writings, the late US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger praised him as a penetrating mind
who managed one of the most significant reform programs in modern history.
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