Born in 1928 in Hunan Province, Zhu Rongji attended Tsinghua University and joined the Communist Party in college. Zhu joined a generation of technocrat-leaders, educated in the sciences and engineering at China’s top universities. Zhu was purged from the party for criticizing Mao’s economics during the Great Leap Forward, and purged again for reformist tendencies during the Cultural Revolution. After Mao’s death, he rose through the bureaucratic ranks as a relative unknown until he burst onto the scene as Shanghai Mayor in 1988, handpicked by Deng Xiaoping.

A young Zhu Rongji with his wife, Lao An