Premiership
Zhu earned a reputation as a strong, strict administrator, intolerant of flunkeyism, nepotism, and a dilatory style of work. For his hard work ethic and relatively truthful and transparent attitude, he is generally considered one of the most popular Communist officials in mainland China.
With support from Jiang Zemin and Li Peng, then president and premier respectively, Zhu enacted tough macroeconomic control measures. Favoring healthy, sustainable development, Zhu expunged low-tech, duplicated projects and sectors that would result in "a bubble economy" as well as projects in transport, energy and agricultural sectors, thereby averting violent market fluctuations. He focused on strengthening industrial and agricultural sectors while continuing a moderately tight monetary policy. He also started a large privatization program which saw China's private sector grow massively.
President Jiang Zemin nominated Zhu for the position of the Premier of the State Council at the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC), who confirmed the nomination on 17 March 1998 at the NPC First Session. Zhu was re-elected as a member of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee, China's de facto central decision-making group, at the 15th CPC Central Committee in September 1997.
The 1990s were a difficult time for economic management, as unemployment soared in many cities, and the bureaucracy became increasingly tainted by corruption scandals. Zhu kept things on track in the difficult years of the late 1990s as China averaged growth of 9.7% annual for the two decades leading up to 2000. Against the backdrop of the Asian financial crisis (and catastrophic domestic floods) mainland China's GDP still grew by 7.9% in the first nine months of 2002, beating the government's 7% target despite a global economic slowdown. This was achieved, in part, through active state intervention to stimulate demand through wage increases in the public sector among other measures. China was one of the few Asian economies that survived the crisis.
While foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide halved in 2000, the flow of capital into mainland China rose by 10%. As global firms scrambled to avoid missing the China boom, FDI in China rose by 22.6% in 2002. While global trade stagnated, growing by one percent in 2002, mainland China's trade soared by 18% in the first nine months of 2002, with exports outstripping imports.
Despite the glowing growth statistics, Zhu tackled deep-seated structural problems: uneven development; inefficient state firms and a banking system mired in bad loans. Observers contend that while there are few substantial disagreements over economic policy within the CPC; tensions tend to focus on the pace of change. Zhu's economic philosophies had often triumphed over those of his colleagues, they nevertheless resulted in a testy relationship with then-General Secretary Jiang Zemin.
The PRC leadership struggled to modernize State-owned enterprises (SOEs) without inducing massive urban unemployment. As millions lost their jobs to closing state firms, Zhu demanded financial safety nets for unemployed workers, an important aim in a country of 1.3 billion. Under the auspices of Zhu and Wen Jiabao (his top deputy and successor), the state tried to alleviate unemployment while promoting efficiency, by pumping tax revenues into the economy and maintaining consumer demand. Zhu also won acclaim domestically and internationally for steering the People's Republic of China into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001.
Zhu, along with his successor Wen, sought to protect farmers from indiscriminate taxation by corrupt officials by setting limits on taxes. Well respected by many Chinese citizens, Zhu has also garnered the respect of prominent Western political and business leaders, many of whom credit Zhu with engineering China's market-opening and ascension to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which has brought foreign capital pouring into the country.
Zhu served as Premier until March 2003, when the National People's Congress appointed then-deputy Wen Jiabao as his successor. Wen was the only Zhu ally to appear on the nine-person Politburo Standing Committee. Though Wen has since earned a reputation as a competent administrator known for his suppleness and discretion, similar to his fourth-generation colleague Hu Jintao, observers have cited Wen's personal opinions as difficult to discern in contrast to his relatively outspoken predecessor.
During the 2000 ROC presidential election in Taiwan, Zhu predicted "no good ending for those involved in Taiwan independence". In his farewell speech to the National People's Congress, Zhu unintentionally referred to China and Taiwan as two "countries" before quickly correcting himself. His stance on Taiwan during his time in office was always with the Party line.
Read more about this topic: Zhu Rongji