Known for his sharp intellect, no-nonsense demeanour and relentless drive for reform, China’s former premier Zhu Rongji was the primary architect of the country’s transition from an isolated, rigidly planned economy to a market-driven titan connected to the rest of the world. During his tenure from 1998 to 2003, he engineered an economic “soft landing”, steered the nation through the Asian Financial Crisis and secured entry into the WTO, laying the groundwork for the country’s historic...

Beijing has started airing a flagship documentary on former Chinese president Jiang Zemin as part of commemorative events marking the centenary of his birth, expected to culminate on Monday in a grand ceremony presided over by President Xi Jinping. In the lead-up to the anniversary, state broadcaster CCTV launched a 12-episode documentary titled Jiang Zemin, with the network’s flagship CCTV-1 airing two episodes nightly at prime time from Tuesday. The series is jointly produced by the ruling...

Zhu Senlin, a former Guangdong governor and key enforcer of the province’s economic transformation when China was opening up in the 1990s, died on Monday aged 95, according to official media. Nanfang Daily, mouthpiece of the Guangdong party committee, confirmed on Tuesday that Zhu had died due to illness. Shanghai-born Zhu spent more than five decades in the southern province that neighbours Hong Kong. He is widely remembered as a pragmatic, steady administrator who steered Guangdong through...

A China Southern Airlines flight was forced to abandon its departure and return to the gate at Shenzhen airport over the weekend after the Airbus A321 aircraft was struck by lightning while taxiing. Flight CZ3209, bound for the city of Wuxi in China’s eastern Jiangsu province, was waiting on the ground during a heavy thunderstorm on Saturday afternoon when the incident occurred, according to a report by The First Scene, a news portal under Shenzhen Media Group. The incident came to light on...

The death toll from a landslide in Chongqing province, southwest China, earlier this month rose to 51, with 10 people still missing, local authorities said late on Thursday night. The landslide, which occurred two weeks ago in Pengshui county, swept away several residential buildings at the foot of a mountain along a riverbank. Quoting the command centre of the rescue effort, state-run news agency Xinhua said that 51 people had been found and confirmed dead, while 10 were still missing. Drone...

China’s top leadership has made party governance the focus of a coming key conclave, signalling the significance of a clean record in the selection process ahead of next year’s national congress. The Politburo, China’s top decision-making body, announced on Thursday that the fifth plenary session of the Communist Party’s 20th Central Committee would be held in October, state news agency Xinhua reported. The meeting is likely to be the party’s most important gathering ahead of its 21st national...

China has seen a spike in Covid-19 in recent weeks, overtaking influenza as the top respiratory pathogen for the first time this year, but most patients experienced mild symptoms, while the medical authorities said data suggested the infection rate was significantly lower than last year’s peak. The spread of the Omicron NB.1.8.1 variant has reached a “moderate transmission level”, according to the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC does not give a weekly total of...