Zhu Rongji, Former Chinese Premier and Economic Reformer, Dies at 98

Zhu Rongji, the former Chinese premier credited with steering the country's economy through a period of explosive growth, has died. He was 98.

State media reported that Zhu died of illness in Beijing at around 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

Zhu served as premier from 1998 to 2003, a period in which he pushed through sweeping changes to China's state-owned industries. His efforts to make those enterprises more efficient and profitable came at a heavy social cost, with millions of workers losing their jobs. Yet the reforms helped lay the groundwork for China's rise to become the world's second-largest economy, overtaking Japan in 2010.

Earlier in his career, Zhu was sent to the countryside to perform manual labor after he praised reforms in other communist countries. He later built on the legacy of Deng Xiaoping's 1979 reforms, adding the tenacity and resourcefulness needed to secure China's entry into the World Trade Organization. That membership transformed China into the world's largest exporter.