Chinese President Xi Jinping leads party elite in final farewell for ex-premier Zhu Rongji

Chinese President Xi Jinping led the party elite to pay a final tribute to former premier Zhu Rongji who was cremated on Tuesday as national flags were lowered to half mast. Zhu, who died of an illness in Beijing last Wednesday aged 97, served as premier from 1998 to 2003 and is regarded as the chief engineer of the country’s economic reform. He played a pivotal role in transitioning China towards a market-based economy and steered its entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), which…