Former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, one of the defining economic reformers of China's post-Mao era, died in Beijing on Wednesday morning after an illness at 97, Xinhua said. Premier from 1998 to 2003 and vice premier before that, Zhu pushed China further toward what the Communist Party calls a socialist market economy through fiscal and tax centralization, currency and banking reforms, restructuring of state-owned enterprises, support for home ownership and a hard line on corruption. He is also closely associated with China's entry into the World Trade Organization, a turning point that deepened foreign investment and helped turn the country into a manufacturing powerhouse, though accounts in this topic differ on whether to date that milestone to 2001 or 2002. Public mourning after his death has also underscored his unusually blunt and combative style, with the Communist Party obituary saying he "dared to speak the truth and did not fear offending others" and online tributes recalling a more dynamic period of reform and openness than the current era under Xi Jinping.