Overview
- Zhu Rongji died in Beijing on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, at 11:06 a.m. local time, state media Xinhua and a joint Communist Party and government obituary reported.
- He served as premier from 1998 to 2003 and is widely credited with steering the negotiations that led to China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001.
- As a top economic official in the 1990s and early 2000s, Zhu pushed broad fiscal and financial reforms and forced deep restructuring of state-owned enterprises to run on profitability criteria.
- Those SOE changes and other measures produced major social costs, including reported mass layoffs on the order of tens of millions and a rapid shift toward private urban homeownership after 1998 policy moves.
- Officials praised Zhu’s tenacity and direct style in his official obituary, coverage noted a minor discrepancy in reported age (97 versus 98), and commentators say his death prompts renewed assessment of the tradeoffs behind China’s rise.