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Flags at government sites are flying at half-mast and security vehicles are parked in the heart of Beijing, as China mourns former Premier Zhu Rongji.<\/b><\/p>\n
Zhu died of an illness last week at 97 and was cremated at a funeral in Beijing on Tuesday. The ceremony, attended by senior leaders including President Xi Jinping, was kept low-key. No footage has been released.<\/p>\n
Zhu, who served as China’s premier from 1998 to 2003, is remembered as one of the country’s most important economic reformers.<\/p>\n
While hailing the late premier as a “loyal” party member, the Chinese state is also wary that public mourning for his era of reform can easily turn into veiled criticisms of the current government under Xi.<\/p>\n
Xi was among the leaders who had visited Zhu in hospital or sent condolences after his death, Chinese state media reported on Tuesday. Others included incumbent premier Li Qiang and ex-president Hu Jintao.<\/p>\n
After his death, state media described Zhu as an “outstanding member of the Chinese Communist Party” and a “time-tested and loyal Communist fighter”. <\/p>\n
He was cremated at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, an exclusive resting place for high-ranking officials and other prominent figures.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, online, posts about Zhu have been contained and censored – including an essay written by economist Zhao Jian, which remembered Zhu’s era as a time when people were “properly poor” but saw a clear future ahead.<\/p>\n
“There were no smartphones then, no short-form videos and no screens filled by the purveyors of anxiety,” he wrote.<\/p>\n
“The sky was blue, life moved slowly and people could say what they really thought.”<\/p>\n
Zhao’s comments were removed from WeChat the day after they were published.<\/p>\n
The party has long been fearful of public reaction to deaths of senior officials and public figures.<\/p>\n
The deaths of former premier Zhou Enlai in 1976 and former CCP general secretary Hu Yaobang in 1989 prompted widespread outpourings of grief that morphed into protests.<\/p>\n
Zhu died just days before the Communist Party leadership gathered to commemorate the birth centenary of President Jiang Zemin, who died in 2022.<\/p>\n
The death of Zhu and Jiang, two prominent leaders from the same era, has prompted a wave of nostalgia among many Chinese people for a time when the country looked as if it was going in a different direction – when it appeared that it may open to the world and allow more freedom for its people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n