Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

I’m keeping it simple this week in the China links section with an exclusive focus on the passing of former PRC Premier Zhu Rongji, who died on August 12 at the age of 97. As you’ll see in many of the stories below, Zhu hasn’t been a major player in Communist Party politics for many years (to be honest, I had forgotten he was still alive), but his time as premier is worth reflecting on as a snapshot of China at the turn of the millennium.

Thanks for joining me this week.

Recommendations

The Death of Zhu Rongji

Chris Buckley, “How China Remembers Zhu Rongji, the Premier Who Spoke His Mind”

Emily Feng, “Zhu Rongji, who drove China’s 1990s economic reforms, has died at 97” (audio)

Dexter Roberts, “The passing of the great economic reformer Zhu Rongji”

Victor Shih, “Zhu Rongji: A Reformer Who Centralized More Power in the Chinese State”

The grief was about more than Mr. Zhu himself. It was also about what he had come to represent: an era when China was opening to the world, officials could publicly acknowledge the country’s problems and the future seemed more prosperous and hopeful. In remembering that era, many people were also passing judgment on present-day China, which has become more closed to the world, less tolerant of criticism and far less confident about what lies ahead. — Li Yuan, “In a Chinese Leader’s Death, Mourning for a More Hopeful Time”

Wanderings Around the World

Anna Fifield, “What to know about Vietnam’s bold new(ish) leader, To Lam”

Jessica Kutz, “National park signs on women and LGBTQ+ history are disappearing. Librarians are preserving the record”

Tripti Lahiri, “500,000 Applicants, 583 Jobs: The Frantic Scramble for Work in India”

Standout Story

In Detroit’s Milwaukee Junction neighborhood, once the epicenter of the automotive industry, the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant Museum preserves and shares an indelible piece of American history. Housed in the first factory built by the Ford Motor Company, the museum was once the birthplace of the Model-T. Until recently, however, it was also a massive fire hazard. — John Garrison Marks, “America’s Museums are Falling Apart”

Featured photo: Inside the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant, Detroit, MI, September 29, 2019.