Former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji, whose market reforms helped drive the country’s extraordinary economic rise, died on Wednesday at the age of 97. Zhu became premier in 1998 and swiftly lived up to his reputation as a hard-hitting free marketeer. Among his best-known reforms were a broad programme to privatise unprofitable state-owned enterprises, the privatisation of urban housing and the promotion of home ownership. He passed away from illness in Beijing late Wednesday morning “after medical treatment failed to save him”, state news agency Xinhua reported. “The life of comrade Zhu Rongji was a life of revolution, a life of struggle, a life of glory,” an obituary jointly issued by China’s top political bodies said, according to Xinhua. “It was a life dedicated wholeheartedly to serving the people, one given to the communist cause. His passing is a major loss for the Party and the country.” Reforms under Zhu sparked a boom in real estate and construction, which would soar to become a quarter of China’s econo...