China’s Zhu Rongji: The man who gets things done

The key figure in China’s financial reform process is Zhu Rongji, vice-premier in charge of the economy and a 68-year-old often described in western media as China’s economic tsar. Though keeping a somewhat lower profile over the past year, his role as overseer of the financial reforms thus far implemented has been crucial.

Without Zhu Rongji’s forceful personality, it probably would have been impossible to push through the legislation which in 1995 set China’s state-owned banks free to become commercial entities and which established an autonomous central bank.