China is mourning former Premier Zhu Rongji.
But beneath the official tributes lies a more complicated story: nostalgia for an era when economic reform seemed to promise a brighter future.
Flags have been lowered across Beijing ahead of Zhu’s funeral on Tuesday.
He died last week aged 97 after serving as premier from 1998 to 2003.
This was a period of rapid growth, painful state-sector reforms and China’s entry into the World Trade Organization.
Zhu was known for his blunt humour and willingness to speak his mind.
He once called rogue bankers “half-wits” and joked with former US President Bill Clinton about political donations, winning laughter from reporters.
That candour now looks strikingly different from today’s tightly controlled political environment.
Death Revives Debate Over China’s Past
Online, some Chinese citizens have used Zhu’s death to reminisce about those years.
One economist described the period as a time when “life was hard, but it was hardship sustained by hope”. His essay was later removed from WeChat.
Why the sensitivity? China’s leadership has long feared that mourning prominent figures could evolve into wider political criticism.
Similar public grief surrounding Zhou Enlai and Hu Yaobang helped fuel major protests in 1976 and 1989.
Professor Kerry Brown says Xi Jinping is seeking a “unified historic narrative” that leaves little room for alternative paths.
Zhu’s death, then, is more than a farewell. For many Chinese, it is also a quiet question about what might have been.
