Former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji dies aged 97
Developing story first seen 3 hours ago
Former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji has died aged 97, Chinese state media have announced. He was a central figure in China’s economic transformation, helping secure its entry into the World Trade Organization and opening its factories to global trade and foreign investment, which helped lay the foundations for the country’s rise as a manufacturing power.
Premier from 1998 to 2003, Zhu centralised tax powers, restructured failing state companies and promoted home ownership, while earning a reputation for blunt criticism of corruption and poor infrastructure. His reforms helped deliver double-digit growth but also led to about 30 million lay-offs over five years and widened inequality; he had previously been purged twice under Mao before returning to senior office after Mao’s death.
- Zhu Rongji, key architect of China’s economic opening, has died aged 97.
- He helped China join the World Trade Organization in 2002.
- His reforms fuelled growth but brought job losses and inequality.
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Zhu Rongji was one of China’s most influential economic leaders during the country’s shift from a largely state-run system towards greater trade with the rest of the world. He served as premier, the head of China’s government administration, from 1998 to 2003, working under President Jiang Zemin.
China’s ruling Communist Party kept political control while allowing more market-based activity, foreign investment and exports. Zhu played a major role in reforms to state-owned businesses, taxation and housing, and in China joining the World Trade Organization, which sets rules for international trade.
These changes helped China become a major manufacturing and exporting economy, but they also brought disruption. Many workers lost jobs as unprofitable state firms were closed or reorganised, and the gap between richer and poorer parts of society grew.
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The case for
Supporters argue that Zhu Rongji’s reforms were essential to modernising an inefficient economy and giving China the capacity to raise living standards on an unprecedented scale. They credit his fiscal centralisation, state-sector restructuring and support for global trade with creating a more productive, competitive economy, while valuing his willingness to confront corruption and institutional weakness. From this view, difficult short-term disruption was an unavoidable part of replacing failing systems with ones capable of sustaining long-term growth.
The case against
Critics argue that the reforms’ human costs were too readily treated as secondary to growth, particularly for the millions of workers made redundant as state firms were restructured. They contend that closer integration with global markets and market-oriented policies concentrated gains unevenly, widened inequality and weakened the security once provided by state employment. From this perspective, economic modernisation should have been accompanied by stronger protections for displaced workers and a more equitable distribution of its benefits.
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Originally published by BBC World as “Zhu Rongji, who helped turn China into a trading giant, dies at 97”.