储百亮2026年8月14日周四，北京一家报摊上刊登的朱镕基官方讣告。 Maxim Shemetov/ReutersZhu Rongji, China’s former premier, is often remembered for opening the country to the global economy. But among Chinese people, his death has also prompted nostalgia for his blunt words and pugnacious outbursts, a contrast with the political rigidity of the present.中国前总理朱镕基常因推动国家走向全球经济而被人们铭记。但在中国民众之间，他的逝世也引发了人们对其直言不讳与敢作敢为风格的怀念，这与当下政治环境的拘谨形成了鲜明对比。Xi Jinping, China’s autocratic leader, exercises tight control over political expression, and the public mourning of leaders is meticulously scripted. Major state-run news outlets carried the Communist Party’s official obituary of Mr. Zhu, who died aged 97 on Wednesday. Mr. Xi and other leaders are expected to attend a formal funeral and memorial service in the coming days, though no details have been announced.中国最高领导人习近平对政治表达实施着严格掌控，对领导人的公开悼念活动也有着缜密的规范流程。朱镕基于周三逝世，享年97岁，官方主要媒体刊发了中国共产党的官方讣告。预计习近平及其他领导人将在未来几天出席正式的遗体告别及悼念活动，不过具体细节尚未公布。The party’s obituary in the People’s Daily emphasized how Mr. Zhu pulled back some state controls of the economy and propelled China’s entry into global commerce from 1993 to 2003, first as vice premier and then as premier, the equivalent of a prime minister. It also said Mr. Zhu “dared to speak the truth and did not fear offending others.”中共在《人民日报》发表的讣告中重点强调了朱镕基在1993年至2003年期间——先是担任副总理，后担任总理——如何部分放开国家对经济的控制，并推动中国融入全球贸易体系。讣告还指出，朱镕基“敢于说真话，不怕得罪人”。Some in China celebrated Mr. Zhu’s legacy and his frankness in bolder terms.在中国，一些人以更为大胆的措辞赞颂朱镕基留下的政治遗产及其直率的性格。The deaths of senior leaders have become occasions for people to point indirectly to what they see as a more dynamic and hopeful past. On Chinese social media sites, many recalled with affection Mr. Zhu’s sometimes ebullient, sometimes combative style.高层领导人的逝世已被人们当做一个契机，来怀念过去那个更具活力与希望的时代。在中国社交媒体平台上，许多人深情地回忆起朱镕基时而豪爽洒脱、时而针锋相对的个人风格。“They faced up to the opportunities of reform, they managed the pace of reform, they were the pillars of China’s economic reforms,” Rao Yi, the president of Capital Medical University in Beijing wrote in a tribute on Thursday to Mr. Zhu’s generation on WeChat, a popular Chinese social media platform. Dr. Rao did not mention Mr. Zhu by name.“他们面临改革的机遇，他们把握改革的步伐，他们是中国经济改革的中坚，”北京首都医科大学校长饶毅周四在微信上撰文悼念朱镕基那一代人时这样写道。他在文中并未直接提及朱镕基的名字。Online commenters remembered Mr. Zhu’s gladiatorial news conferences and peppery phrases, a pointed reminder that these days, even senior Chinese officials often do little more than echo the words of Mr. Xi.许多网友回忆起朱镕基当年那一场场从容应对的记者招待会以及字字珠玑的表达，这耐人寻味地提醒着人们：现如今，即便是高级官员也往往只是在复述最高领导人的话语。Some cited Mr. Zhu’s warning against corrupt officials, where he suggested the lengths he would go to attack the problem. “I’ve prepared 100 coffins,” Mr. Zhu said at a meeting in 1998. “Nine-nine of them are for corrupt officials, and I’m leaving one for myself.”一些人引用了朱镕基对腐败官员发出的警告，这段话展现了他痛下决心解决该问题的铁腕态度。“我准备了100口棺材，99口留给贪官，一口留给我自己，”朱镕基在1998年的一次会议上说。Others quoted Mr. Zhu’s description of poorly built flood barriers that broke under a deluge on the Yangtze River in 1998. “Tofu dregs construction, turtle eggs construction,” he said. (“Turtle eggs” has a more vulgar implication in Chinese than it does in English.)还有人引用了朱镕基对1998年长江特大洪水期间对溃决的劣质防洪工程的斥责。他怒骂其为“豆腐渣工程、王八蛋工程”。1999年，时任中国总理朱镕基抵达华盛顿。在国外，朱镕基最被人铭记的事迹是他在2001年就中国加入世界贸易组织展开谈判。 Alex Wong/Getty ImagesThe official memorializing of Mr. Zhu will likely follow the party’s scripted formula. The party’s obituary was roughly the same length and given similar prominence as the one for the former premier Li Keqiang in 2023, and for the another former premier, Li Peng, in 2019.对朱镕基的官方悼念活动可能将遵循既定的规格。党的讣告在篇幅和版面位置上与2023年去世的前总理李克强以及2019年去世的前总理李鹏基本相当。The deaths of former leaders can be politically sensitive in China. When Li Keqiang died unexpectedly in 2023 at age 68, there was widespread mourning online and in his hometown in Anhui Province. Experts saw the outpouring as an expression of public sympathy for an official who had been pushed aside by Mr. Xi.在中国，前领导人的逝世可能具有政治敏感性。2023年李克强突然去世时，网络上以及他的家乡安徽省出现了大规模的民间悼念。在专家看来，这种情感的倾泻是公众对这位政治生涯受挫官员的同情表达。A similar, highly visible mourning seems less likely for Mr. Zhu. He belonged to an older political generation, and had long receded from public life. Controls on expression in China have also tightened since 2023.对朱镕基而言，出现类似且高度瞩目的公开悼念活动的可能性较低。他属于更早一代的政治人物，且早已淡出公众视野。此外，自2023年以来，对言论的管控也进一步收紧。Some tributes to Mr. Zhu in China were tempered with recognition that he was not an unabashed economic liberalizer, nor did his promises always come to fruition, including his vows to clean out corruption and ease burdens on farmers.在中国对朱镕基的赞誉中也夹杂着理性的认知：人们意识到他并非一位毫无保留的经济自由化推动者，他的承诺——无论是清除腐败还是减轻农民负担——也并不总能化为现实。“Zhu Rongji loudly declared that ‘the burden on farmers is too heavy,’ but whether through emotional appeals or rational arguments, the problem was never really solved,” said one essay that was shared on WeChat about Mr. Zhu’s legacy as premier.“朱镕基曾大声疾呼‘农民负担太重’，然而不管是动之以情还是晓之以理，这一问题都没能得到更好的解决，直到他卸任，‘农民负担太重’依然为心头之痛，”在微信上流传的一篇关于朱镕基总理任期遗产的文章中这样写道。2017年，朱镕基在北京。Mr. Zhu focused on courting global business and not enough on the countryside, said Yasheng Huang, a professor at M.I.T. who has written extensively about China’s economic transformation.在中国经济转型方面有大量著述的麻省理工学院教授黄亚生表示，朱镕基将精力集中在争取全球企业上，对广大农村地区的关注有所不足。He squeezed financial flows for rural factories that had mushroomed in the previous decade, forcing many of them to go out of business and taking the momentum out of rural development, Professor Huang said.他说，朱镕基限制了此前十年如雨后春笋般涌现的乡镇企业的资金流，迫使其中许多企业倒闭，从而扼杀了农村发展的势头。“We need to incorporate into our assessment what happened in rural China, which after all was 70 to 80 percent of the Chinese population,” Professor Huang wrote in emailed comments. “Zhu was a reformer but he was one in a way far more complex than often portrayed.”“我们在进行评估时，必须把中国农村发生的事情纳入考量，毕竟农村人口当时占到了中国总人口的70%到80%，”黄亚生通过电子邮件评论道。“朱镕基是一位改革者，但他实现改革的方式比人们通常塑造的形象要复杂得多。”Mr. Zhu is widely remembered abroad for negotiating China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001. But in China he is also remembered for giving the central government in Beijing much greater control over revenues. That shift paved the way for the big-spending projects of later leaders, including Mr. Xi. Local governments, on the other hand, are often cash starved.在国外，朱镕基最被人铭记的事迹是他在2001年就中国加入世界贸易组织展开谈判。但在中国国内，人们同样记得他让中央政府对财政收入有了更大的掌控权。这一转变为主政者后来的大规模投资项目铺平了道路。然而另一方面，地方政府却常常陷于财政拮据的困境。“Zhu Rongji was a leader who reflected the paradoxes of reform-era China: the pursuit of rapid economic growth paired with enduring political control,” said Julian Gewirtz, a China historian at Columbia University who is writing a book on U.S.-China relations after the Cold War. “Zhu himself bristled at Western efforts to fit him into familiar liberalizing archetypes.”“朱镕基是一位体现了改革开放时期中国矛盾性的领导人：对经济快速增长的追求与持久的政治控制并行不悖，”哥伦比亚大学研究冷战后中美关系的历史学家朱利安·格维兹表示。“朱本人很反感西方试图将他套入熟悉的‘自由化’典型模板。”Ruoxin Zhang自北京、Amy Chang Chien自台北对本文有研究和报道贡献。储百亮(Chris Buckley)是《纽约时报》首席中国记者，自台北报道中国和台湾问题，重点关注政治、社会变革以及安全和军事问题。翻译：纽约时报中文网点击查看本文英文版。