Right-Wing Element, Iron-Fisted Premier to Architect of China's Economic Boom and Bust: 'Economic Tsar' Zhu Rongji and the China He Left Behind

Former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji passed away on the morning of August 12, 2026, in Beijing at the age of 98. This leader, who held China's highest economic position from 1998 to 2003, was known to the outside world as China's 'economic tsar' and 'iron-fisted premier.' His series of measures drove China's rapid economic growth, deepened local governments' dependence on land and the real estate market, and led to the collapse of the land-based fiscal model starting in 2021, as well as laying the groundwork for the massive trade surplus that later sparked the U.S.-China trade war. Under the current leader Xi Jinping, China's optimistic economic era has come to an end. For many Chinese who experienced the era of economic reform, Zhu Rongji's death marked a heavy end to that era.