Former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji Dies at 97

Former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, the sharp-tongued and impatient reformer who helped ignite China's explosive economic boom by forcing wrenching changes on state industry and leading the country into the World Trade Organization, has died. He was 97.

Zhu died of illness in Beijing on Wednesday morning, according to the official Xinhua news agency. He served as premier, China's top economic post, from 1998 to 2003 under former President Jiang Zemin.

A dogged technocrat, Zhu pushed through a dizzying array of changes that built on the reforms of former leader Deng Xiaoping. He is credited with supplying the resourcefulness and tenacity to push through history-making changes such as China's WTO membership in December 2001, which helped transform the country into the world's biggest exporter. Those changes helped keep economic growth above 8 percent annually from 2000 to 2010, peaking at 14.2 percent in 2007, and propelled China to overtake Japan as the world's second-largest economy behind the United States in 2010.

Zhu clashed with Communist Party conservatives and state industry bosses as he pushed state-owned companies to become efficient and profitable. That effort cost...