Former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji has died at the age of 97, according to state media.
Known as a reformer, he helped ignite China’s explosive economic boom by forcing wrenching change on state industry in the 1990s and leading the country into the World Trade Organization.
The official Xinhua news agency reported that Zhu died of illness in Beijing on Wednesday morning, local time.
Once sent into rural exile to do manual labour for praising reforms in other communist countries, Zhu pushed through a dizzying array of changes as premier, China’s top economic post, from 1998 to 2003.
Zhu clashed with Communist Party conservatives and state industry bosses as he pushed state-owned companies to become efficient and profitable.
That cost millions of layoffs, but helped propel China to overtake Japan as the second-largest economy behind the United States in 2010.
Building on former leader Deng Xiaoping’s 1979 reforms, Zhu is credited with supplying the resourcefulness and tenacity to push through history-making changes such as China’s WTO membership, which helped to transform China into the world’s biggest exporter.
Those changes helped to keep economic growth above 8 per cent a year from 2000-2010, peaking at 14.2 per cent in 2007.
Zhu launched China’s home ownership boom in 1998 with an initiative to sell apartments owned by state companies. Families rushed to buy, and within a decade the majority of urban housing was privately owned.
In 1992, on a visit to Sydney when Vice Premier, Zhu spoke of a “strengthening” relationship between China and Australia that, he said, could contribute to the stability of the Asia-Pacific region.
According to the state news agency, an obituary jointly issued by China’s top political bodies said he lived “a life of revolution, a life of struggle, a life of glory”.
“It was a life dedicated wholeheartedly to serving the people, one given to the communist cause. His passing is a major loss for the Party and the country.”
AP/AFP
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