About this episode

A discussion on Zhu Rongji's impact on modern China and the complexities of his legacy.

Why does a kettle cost less than ten pounds? What kind of official refuses to send the army against protesters in one decade, then puts thirty million people out of work in the next? And when the man who built modern China spent his last twenty years saying nothing at all, what was he saying? Peter Frankopan and Afua Hirsch disagree, at length and on the record, about whether the architect of the modern cheap economy was brave or simply ruthless. Zhu Rongji died in Beijing in August, aged 97. Outside China his name means very little. Inside China, and inside every container ship leaving Ningbo, it means a great deal. He trained as an electrical engineer, was expelled from the Communist Party for speaking approvingly of economic reform in Hungary and Yugoslavia, spent five years doing manual labour during the Cultural Revolution, and came back to run Shanghai. In 1989 he refused to send the army against the city's protesters and went on television to talk them down instead. Then, as premier, he dismantled the iron rice bowl and cost somewhere between thirty and forty million people their jobs. Peter thinks that took nerve. Afua thinks ruthless and callous are the better words…

People in this episode

Guests: Peter Frankopan, Afua Hirsch

Topics covered

• Zhu Rongji
• modern China
• economic reform
• protests
• cheap economy
• job loss

Keywords

• Zhu Rongji
• China
• economic reform
• protests
• job loss
• Cultural Revolution
• cheap economy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Communist Party

Places: Beijing, Shanghai, Ningbo, China

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