BEIJING – When the scared but respected Zhu Rongji got the opportunity to become China’s premier in March 1998, he announced at his maiden news conference that he would make 100 coffins as part of a renewed crackdown on corruption – 99 for unscrupulous officials and one for himself in the occasion that he was vindictively assassinated.
here was never a dull moment whenever Mr Zhu, who was also the nation’s economic czar, encountered the press over the next five years. In March 2000, the no-nonsense prime minister warned Taiwanese voters ahead of a closely contested presidential election not to vote for an unspecified pro-independence candidate. But he halted short of threatening to interrupt the self-governed island, which Beijing claims as its own.