China mourns former premier Zhu Rongji with flags lowered, funeral

Former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji was mourned on Tuesday with lowered flags and social media commemorations, as top leaders attended a funeral for the reforming trailblazer who died last week at 97.

Known for his decisive restructuring of the Chinese economy during a five-year premiership starting in 1998, Zhu was praised as "an outstanding proletarian revolutionist (and) statesman" when his death was announced Wednesday by state news agency Xinhua.

Flags were lowered at government buildings across Beijing on Tuesday, AFP journalists saw, as well as on Tiananmen Square, the expansive and highly securitised site in the capital's centre.

Online, the Tiananmen tribute was the top trending topic on Chinese microblogging site Weibo.

"Thank you for everything you have done for this land -- we will always remember you," wrote one commenter on Weibo.

Zhu's remains were cremated on Tuesday at Beijing's Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, state broadcaster CCTV said, with a farewell gathering that was attended by senior leaders of China's ruling Communist Party, including President Xi Jinping.

Zhu's "remains lay at rest amidst fresh flowers and evergreen cypress branches, draped in the bright red flag of the Communist Party of China", CCTV said.

At around 9:30 am (0130 GMT), Xi and top leaders including Premier Li Qiang "walked slowly to the side of Comrade Zhu Rongji's remains amidst the strains of funeral music", it added.

They "stood in solemn silence, bowed three times to pay their respects, and shook hands with Comrade Zhu Rongji's family members" to offer their condolences, CCTV reported.  

Born in 1928 in central China and later ascending the ranks of the party following the 1949 culmination of a revolution led by Mao Zedong, Zhu's political roles included being mayor of Shanghai, followed by national vice premier and premier.

His premiership coincided with the presidency of Jiang Zemin, the gregarious, bespectacled economic reformer who died in 2022.

Zhu became known for his ardent anti-corruption drive, controversial dismantling of inefficient state-owned firms and integration of China with the global economy.

Asked once by a reporter how he'd like to be remembered, Zhu said: "I only hope that after I step down, people across the country will say that 'he was an honest official, not a corrupt one', and I'll be very satisfied with that".