China censors public mourning as it holds former premier's funeral

What the report says

China has held a low-profile funeral in Beijing for former premier Zhu Rongji, who died last week at 97 after an illness. According to BBC World News, the ceremony took place on Tuesday and was attended by senior leaders including President Xi Jinping, with state media showing little footage and government sites in the capital flying flags at half-mast. Zhu was cremated at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, a burial place for senior officials and other prominent figures.

Zhu, who served as premier from 1998 to 2003, is widely associated with major economic reforms and China’s deepening integration into global trade. The BBC reports that he and other leaders from that period helped drive painful but far-reaching changes, including restructuring state firms, reforming housing and managing the Asian financial crisis. The article says authorities have praised Zhu as a loyal Communist Party member while also trying to limit public discussion that could turn memorial messages into criticism of Xi’s current rule.

Online references to Zhu have reportedly been restricted, including an essay by economist Zhao Jian that contrasted the era’s optimism with today’s mood. The BBC says the post was removed from WeChat. More broadly, the story places Zhu’s death alongside renewed public nostalgia for the more open and fast-growing years of the 1990s and early 2000s, at a time when China is facing slower growth, weaker property markets and higher youth unemployment. The article frames the state’s response as part of a longer pattern of controlling mourning for prominent figures.