Beijing, Aug 14:
Former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji has died, according to state media. The impatient, sharp-tongued reformer 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 Organisation.
It was reported that Zhu died of illness in Beijing, 11 am on Wednesday. He was 97 years old. Once sent into rural exile to do manual labor 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.