Zhu Rongji: reformer who led China’s economic transformation through ‘minefield or abyss’

“Regardless of what lies ahead – be it a minefield or a deep abyss – I will forge ahead unswervingly, dedicating my entire life and energy to the country until my dying day.” Those words, spoken at the dawn of his premiership, came to define Zhu Rongji, China’s towering economic reformer who died in Beijing on Wednesda

Zhu Rongji, the impatient, sharp-tongued reformer helped ignite China's explosive economic boom by forcing change on state industry in the 1990s and leading the country into the World Trade Organization, has died at the age of 97.

He negotiated China’s entry into the World Trade Organization and pushed through reforms that breathed new life into China’s state-directed economy.