Zhu Rongji

Zhu Rongji (b. 20 Oct. 1928), Premier of the People's Republic of China, 1998–  Born in Changsha, Hunan province, he studied electrical engineering in Qinghua University and began working for the North-East China Department of Industries. Owing to the Cultural Revolution, he lost his position at the State Planning Commission in 1970. From 1975 he gained a reputation for competent economic management, and in 1983 became deputy minister in charge of the State Economic Commission in 1983. In 1988 he succeeded Jiang Zemin as Mayor of Shanghai, overseeing rapid change in the town's economy and infrastructure. He also gained much support for peacefully ending the student protests of 1989 sparked by the Tiananmen unrest. In 1991 Jiang Zemin brought him to Beijing as Vice-Premier of the State Council, where he gained a growing and crucial role in regulating China's transition to managed market liberalization. He served concurrently as Governor of the Bank of China. Under his guidance, China has kept inflation under control, invested in its infrastructure, and reformed some of its state-owned enterprises (albeit with mixed success). As Premier, he led the drive for China's entry into the WTO, a move that would challenge the Chinese economy further by exposing it more immediately to the fluctuations of the world market.