China Insider | Death of Former Premier Zhu Rongji, Japanese Defense Minister Visits Yasukuni Shrine, COVID-19 Cases Surge in China

So up first today, some news broke last week that, uh, former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji passed away at the age of 97.

Uh, Rongji served as premier, uh, from 1998 to 2003 and was principally responsible for overseeing China's entry into the World Trade Organization, and spearheaded China's first real foray into global trade and internationalization of Chinese factories and manufacturing to global markets and foreign investment.

Uh, his contributions came at a pivotal time in the late '90s as China was then facing several severe economic challenges and potential crises.

So Miles, looking back at the legacy of the former premier, what were his most significant contributions, and what will he be most remembered for?

Zhu Rongji is a very, uh, peculiar figure in Chinese politics, and also in the history of the PRC.

You know, uh, he has a very unique background, uh, unique in a sense that he could still climb to the top of the power structure, because he spent 20 years as a rightist, as the sort of, uh, enemy of the regime.

That is, uh, he was a communist, but the communist, uh, would like to sort of, uh, devour its own children.

He's one of the children.

In 1957, he was labeled by, uh, by the regime, uh, as a rightist.

And so in other words, he wasn't trusted, he was sort of questioned, he was under surveillance by the regime.

And then when, after Mao die, he emerged, uh, as a survivor.

The interesting thing is, he learned the lesson of his 20 years of, uh, oblivion.

He learns, uh, when and how to shut up about the fundamentals of the regime.

In the meantime, he keep his sort of charismatic part of his character, and he is very good at giving people the impression of him being confident and decisive.

Uh, even though a lot of times in, he's just like a, a, a, a great performer [chuckles] in a way.

Uh, but you know, he's in charge of China's economy, which is a very big deal, because the Chinese Party's legitimacy, to a large degree, is built upon the, um, sort of economic prosperity, uh, because Chinese political regime is gone, so now they want to make people sort of, uh, well off, so that's basically the claim.

He came at a critical time.

This is after the, uh, Tiananmen massacre.

The regime has ju- had just recovered from the, uh, international isolation, so Zhu Rongji was, uh, regarded by somebody as a visionary.

Uh, I don't give him that much of credit because he really had to do whatever needs to be done, otherwise, because China was on the verge of collapse in many key factors.

You mentioned about his major contribution to China's membership in the WTO.

That's true.

Let me just, uh, uh, pull off that a little bit.

He's actually best known inside China as the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the number one pusher for reform the state-owned enterprises.

That is, uh, Chinese economy is predominantly socialist.