KEITH BRADSHER2026年8月12日朱镕基，摄于1998年。他的经济举措推动了中国经济的快速增长，但也为后来与特朗普总统的贸易战以及中国当下面临的巨债务问题埋下了伏笔。 Ahn Young-joon/Associated PressZhu Rongji, the former Chinese premier who played a pivotal role in guiding his country toward a market-based economy in the 1990s and subsequently into the World Trade Organization, died on Wednesday in Beijing. He was 97.中国前总理朱镕基周三在北京逝世，享年97岁。他曾在20世纪90年代引导中国走向市场经济，随后又在加入世界贸易组织的过程中发挥了关键作用。His death was announced by Xinhua, China’s official news agency, which did not cite a cause, noting only that he died after medical treatment failed to save him.中国官方通讯社新华社宣布了他的死讯，但没有说明死因，仅表示他“因病医治无效”。Mr. Zhu, who worked under Jiang Zemin, the Communist Party leader at the time, contributed more to liberalizing the Chinese economy and making it more internationally competitive than any other recent leader except Deng Xiaoping. Mr. Zhu’s initiatives propelled rapid growth in China that lasted, with a little slowing along the way, until the housing market began to crash in 2021.朱镕基在时任中共中央总书记江泽民手下工作。除邓小平之外，近几十年来，没有哪位中国领导人在推动经济自由化、提升中国经济的国际竞争力方面比朱镕基贡献更大。朱镕基推出的一系列举措推动了中国经济的快速增长，这一势头虽然期间也有小幅放缓，但一直持续到2021年房地产市场开始崩盘位置。But his measures also set the stage for China’s recent problems with excessive debt and its huge trade surpluses, which have led to trade wars with the United States during President Trump’s terms in office.然而，他的举措也为中国近年来面临的债务过度和巨额贸易顺差问题埋下了伏笔，这些问题在特朗普担任美国总统期间引发了与美国的贸易战。A young Communist star in the 1950s, Mr. Zhu was expelled from the party in one of Mao Zedong’s ideological purification campaigns. He spent 20 years in obscurity, including five years as a farm laborer.20世纪50年代，朱镕基曾是党内冉冉升起的年轻新星，但在毛泽东发动的一次思想清洗运动中被开除出党，随后在默默无闻中度过了20年，其中包括五年的农场劳动生涯。Politically rehabilitated after Mao’s death in 1976, he soared to the top levels of government. It was Mr. Deng, China’s paramount leader from the late 1970s until his death in 1997, who plucked Mr. Zhu in 1991 from his position as mayor of Shanghai and brought him to Beijing to oversee the country’s economic modernization.1976年毛泽东去世后，他在政治上获得平反，并迅速升至政府高层。邓小平在1991年将朱镕基从上海市长的位置上提拔到北京，委以推进国家经济现代化的重任。邓小平从20世纪70年代末直至1997年逝世期间担任中国最高领导人。China’s economy had grown rapidly through the 1980s as officials greatly reduced central planning and curbed the chaos of Mao’s final years. But market reforms faltered after a deadly military crackdown crushed the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.20世纪80年代，随着官员们大幅削减中央计划体制、遏制毛泽东晚年遗留下来的混乱局面，中国经济实现了快速增长。但在1989年，一场血腥的军事镇压镇压了天安门广场的抗议活动，市场化改革随后陷入停滞。Mr. Zhu reinvigorated his country’s embrace of market forces, starting as a vice premier in 1991. Promoted to premier seven years later, he oversaw the privatization of thousands of state-owned enterprises and then led China into the World Trade Organization in 2001.自1991年出任副总理起，朱镕基重新推动中国拥抱市场力量。七年后他升任总理，主导了数以千计国有企业的私有化改革，并于2001年带领中国加入世界贸易组织。Xu Bingjin, a top aide to Mr. Zhu during the negotiations to join the W.T.O., said in an interview in 2018 that the talks had been like haggling in a vegetable market.曾在入世谈判期间担任朱镕基高级助手的徐秉金在2018年的一次采访中回忆说，当年的谈判就像在菜市场讨价还价。“We would bargain about the price and eventually reach a compromise — sometimes we fought intensely and even banged the table,” he said.“就是讨价还价，最后达成妥协。有时争得比较厉害，也会拍桌子，”他说。The eventual deal crafted by Mr. Zhu and his aides was unpopular with many Chinese people, particularly in inland provinces that weren’t as prepared for international competition. Mr. Zhu was widely criticized for agreeing to reduce import tariffs on cars and many other goods to no more than 25 percent from 100 percent or more.朱镕基及其助手最终达成的协议在国内并不受欢迎，尤其是在那些尚未为国际竞争做好准备的内陆省份。由于同意将汽车及许多其他商品的进口关税从100%甚至更高降至不超过25%，朱镕基受到了广泛批评。1999年，中国申请加入世界贸易组织的谈判期间，朱镕基与美国商务部长威廉·戴利举行会晤。But entry into the W.T.O. meant that Chinese goods also had guaranteed access to Western markets with significantly lower tariffs. Exports soared, and by 2010 China had passed the United States to become the world’s largest manufacturer, according to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.但加入世贸组织意味着中国商品也获得了进入西方市场的保障，且关税大幅降低。根据联合国工业发展组织的数据，中国出口额大幅飙升，并于2010年超越美国成为全球最大的制造国。At the same time, imports did not grow as fast as expected. Mr. Zhu retired soon after China joined the trade body, and the country’s embrace of market forces slowed.与此同时，进口增长并未如预期那样迅速。朱镕基在中国加入世贸组织后不久便退休，而中国对市场力量的拥抱也随之放缓。China began erecting new obstacles to bringing in foreign goods. These included extensive subsidies for Chinese manufacturers and numerous requirements that government agencies and state-owned enterprises buy Chinese-made goods.中国开始设置新的壁垒，阻碍外国商品进入国内市场。这些措施包括对中国制造商提供大量补贴，以及规定政府机构和国有企业优先采购国货等种种要求。Under Mr. Zhu, China promised when it joined the W.T.O. that it would quickly open up government procurement to international competition. But China still has not done so. Beijing leaders have faced objections from inland provinces that oppose letting Western companies compete for their sprawling public works projects. Central government officials have submitted several proposals that other countries have quickly rejected as insufficient.在朱镕基任内，中国在加入世界贸易组织时承诺，将迅速开放政府采购市场，迎接国际竞争，但这一承诺至今仍未兑现。北京领导层一直面临来自内陆省份的反对，这些地区不愿让西方企业参与其规模庞大的公共工程项目竞争。中央政府曾提交过多项方案，但都被其他国家迅速否决，认为力度不足。Robert E. Lighthizer, a longtime Washington trade lawyer who was the trade representative for the United States during Mr. Trump’s first term, said Mr. Zhu outsmarted Western negotiators in securing China’s place in the W.T.O.长期担任华盛顿贸易律师并在特朗普首个任期内担任美国贸易代表的罗伯特·莱特希泽表示，朱镕基在争取中国加入世贸组织的过程中表现得比西方谈判代表更胜一筹。“Zhu and China clearly got the better deal,” he said in a 2022 email.他在2022年的一封邮件中写道：“朱镕基和中国显然得到了更有利的协议。”As the trade representative, Mr. Lighthizer waged a trade war with Beijing. He imposed tariffs on many Chinese goods in an effort to claw back access to the American market that Mr. Zhu had negotiated. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. left those tariffs in place, and Mr. Trump raised them after he returned to office in 2025.在担任贸易代表期间，莱特希泽对北京发动了贸易战。通过对多种中国商品加征关税，他试图收回朱镕基当年为中国争取到的美国市场准入。拜登总统在任期间保留了这些关税，而特朗普在2025年重返白宫后又进一步提高了关税水平。Driving Debt债务驱动型发展As vice premier and then premier, Mr. Zhu also oversaw many domestic policies aimed at making China more efficient and competitive. The two most important policies involved the privatization of thousands of inefficient state-owned enterprises and a far-reaching tax overhaul.在担任副总理及总理期间，朱镕基还主导了多项旨在提升中国效率与竞争力的国内政策。其中最为关键的两项政策是推动数以千计低效国有企业的私有化改革，以及一场深远的税制改革。Tens of millions of workers lost their jobs during the privatization drive, with many forced into retirement in their 40s. Mr. Zhu softened the blow by enacting an overhaul of the housing market. A vast number of state-owned apartments were transferred to current and retired employees at a nominal cost. State-owned banks issued mortgages at low interest rates for new homes.在私有化进程中，数千万工人失去工作，其中许多人被迫在40多岁时提前退休。朱镕基通过推动住房市场改革缓解了这一冲击。大量国有住房以象征性价格转让给在职及退休职工，国有银行则以低利率为新购住房提供抵押贷款。2018年，中国句容的一处住宅小区。Apartment prices soared as much as twentyfold in many Chinese cities from the 1990s until around 2021. That gave many older workers a sizable nest egg, as well as protection from homelessness.从20世纪90年代到2021年前后，中国许多城市的房价上涨了多达20倍。这为许多老职工提供了一笔可观的养老金，也在一定程度上为他们提供了免于无家可归的保障。Under Mr. Zhu’s tax overhaul in 1994, the central government seized a much larger share of taxes collected by local governments. The money bankrolled costly initiatives like broad industrial subsidies and a considerable military buildup.在1994年朱镕基主导的税制改革下，中央政府从地方政府征收的税收中获取了更大份额。这些资金支撑了耗资巨大的举措，如大规模产业补贴，以及相当规模的军力建设。“If we don’t suitably centralize revenues and strengthen the central government’s finances, we won’t be able to get by,” Mr. Zhu said during a 1993 visit to Guangzhou. “And in the end, the entire country will suffer and be unable to carry on.”朱镕基1993年在广州考察时指出，“如果我们不适当集中收入、加强中央财政，日子就过不下去，最终全国都会受影响，难以为继。”Beijing let local governments borrow more money from banks and financial markets in exchange for transferring a larger share of their tax revenues to the national government. Beijing also lifted restrictions that previously limited how local governments could spend money. And Beijing granted greater discretion to local governments to sell long-term leases on state-owned land to developers.作为将更大比例税收上缴中央的交换，北京允许地方政府从银行和金融市场借贷更多资金。北京还取消了此前对地方政府支出的限制，并赋予地方政府更大的自主权，允许其向开发商出售国有土地的长期使用权。Local governments proceeded to borrow heavily and sell land leases to raise money for new roads, rail lines and ports.地方政府随后开始大量举债并出售土地使用权，为新建公路、铁路和港口筹集资金。Mr. Zhu’s “grand bargain” with local governments cleared the way for towns, cities and provinces to gorge on debt and become highly dependent on ever-rising revenues from selling land leases. When China’s real estate market fell into a deep slump in 2021, many developers defaulted on loans and stopped buying land leases. This left many local governments with little money to cover their debts.朱镕基与地方政府达成的这一“重大交易”为省市县各级大量举债铺平了道路，使其高度依赖持续增长的土地出让收入。当2021年中国房地产市场陷入深度低迷时，许多开发商贷款违约并停止购买土地使用权，结果使不少地方政府资金枯竭，难以偿还既有债务。2003年，朱镕基卸任国务院总理时。自1991年出任副总理以来，他一直致力于让市场机制重新发挥作用。A Rising Star政治新星Mr. Zhu was born on Oct. 23, 1928, in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province in southern China. He was orphaned as a small child and raised by two of his father’s older brothers, Zhu Kuanjun and Zhu Xuefang. He went on to excel in school and, in 1947, passed the rigorous entrance exam to the elite Tsinghua University, where he studied electrical engineering. He joined the Communist Party in 1949, the year it won China’s civil war.1928年10月23日，朱镕基出生于中国南方湖南省的省会长沙。他自幼父母双亡，由父亲的两位兄长朱宽浚和朱学方抚养长大。他学业出众，在1947年通过严苛的考试考入顶尖学府清华大学，学习电机工程。1949年共产党赢得中国内战的那一年，他加入了中国共产党。Like many economic reformers of the 1990s, Mr. Zhu made a remarkable political comeback from persecution before climbing to the top of the Chinese government. He was working at the State Planning Commission, tracking machinery production, when Mao began his Anti-Rightist Campaign in June 1957, striking back at what he saw as dangerous opposition. The campaign led to the political persecution of 550,000 officials, teachers and other citizens over the next two years.与20世纪90年代许多经济改革派人物一样，在进入中国政府最高层之前，朱镕基经历过被打倒然后实现惊人政治逆转的过程。1957年6月，毛泽东发动反右运动，打击他眼中危险的反对力量。当时，朱镕基在国家计委工作，负责跟踪机械生产情况。反右运动在随后两年里导致约55万名干部、教师和其他公民遭到政治迫害。Mr. Zhu was among them. In the early days of Mao’s campaign, Mr. Zhu had given a three-minute talk at the planning commission that followed the prevailing line in Beijing at the time. But the talk was deemed politically unacceptable after the campaign intensified in October 1957.朱镕基也是其中之一。在运动初期，朱镕基曾在国家计委作过一次三分钟的发言，内容符合当时北京的主流口径。但随着1957年10月运动升级，这次发言被认定为政治上有问题。“Before October, everyone thought that my opinion was good — after October, they said that your opinion should be reconsidered,” Mr. Zhu said in a speech in 1988.朱镕基在1988年的一次讲话中回忆说：“在10月份以前大家都觉得我的意见提得不错，到10月份以后就说你这个意见要重新考虑。”According to a biography of Mr. Zhu published in 2008 by a state company, he was also deemed an “opportunist in revolution” because he had an unacceptable class background: His maternal grandfather, Yu Zhaokang, had been an imperial official before the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, pioneering railroad construction in China.根据一家国有出版公司在2008年出版的朱镕基传记，由于出身不好，他还被定性为“革命投机分子”：他的外公余肇康在1911年清朝灭亡前曾任清廷官员，是中国铁路建设的先驱。Mr. Zhu was expelled from the Communist Party in April 1958 and demoted several rungs at the commission. But he was allowed to remain there to teach math, physics and chemistry to his colleagues.1958年4月，朱镕基被开除党籍，并在国家计委内部连降数级。但他获准留任，负责教同事数理化。His early difficulties set him up for further trouble a decade later during Mao’s Cultural Revolution, when he was sent to labor on a farm for five years. “I have done everything: planted wheat, rice and cotton; herded cattle and sheep; raised pigs; and worked as a cook,” he recalled in his 1988 speech.早年的坎坷为他十年后在文化大革命中的进一步磨难埋下伏笔。那期间，他被下放到农村劳动五年。“我什么都干过，种过小麦、水稻、棉花，放过牛、放过羊、养过猪，当过炊事员，”他在1988年的讲话中回忆道。When the revolution wound down with the illness and death of Mao in 1976, Mr. Zhu spent two years training power transmission workers. As China’s politics began to thaw, he regained his government rank as a deputy director general — the same level he had held as a rising star 20 years earlier.1976年，随着毛泽东病重并去世，这场革命逐渐收尾，在两年时间里，朱镕基从事电力输送工人的培训工作。随着中国政治局势开始解冻，他恢复了副司局级的政府职务——这正是他20年前作为政治新星时的职级。1997年，从左至右依次为：中共中央总书记江泽民、国务院总理李鹏以及朱镕基。担任副总理期间，朱镕基分管贸易与工业生产。Mr. Zhu’s Communist Party membership was retroactively restored in late 1978, with full seniority dating from when he joined the party in 1949. He was named research director for industrial economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. According to the 2008 biography, Mr. Zhu watched as academy officials burned his letter of expulsion from the party and the documents that had been used as evidence to condemn him as a rightist.1978年底，朱镕基的党籍得以恢复，党龄追溯至1949年入党之时。他被调往中国社会科学院工业经济研究所担任研究室主任。2008年出版的那本传记记载，朱镕基亲眼看着社科院工作人员焚毁了他被开除党籍的通知书，以及当年用来将他定为“右派”的相关材料。Mr. Zhu quickly became one of China’s leading economic thinkers on industrial and rural issues. Within five years, he was vice minister of the State Economic Commission.朱镕基迅速成为中国在工业和农村问题领域领先的经济思想家之一。五年内，他便升任国家经委副主任。A Teacher and a Mentor师长与伯乐As his career soared, he began a project that would have long-lasting influence: He founded the School of Economics and Management at his alma mater, Tsinghua. He began training a large cohort of economists and finance experts who went on to fill many top posts for decades. (Xi Jinping, China’s current top leader, has limited the influence of these technocrats, however, by creating Communist Party commissions that took considerable decision-making authority away from government agencies stocked with Mr. Zhu’s protégés.)随着仕途节节攀升，他开启了一个具有深远影响的项目：在母校清华大学创立了经济管理学院。他开始培养大批经济和金融专家，这些人在此后的数十年间出任了许多要职。（不过，中国现任最高领导人习近平通过设立中共中央委员会等机制，削弱了这些技术官僚的影响力，将相当一部分决策权从朱镕基门生云集的政府部门收回。）Mr. Zhu was a popular lecturer at the university on trade, inflation, economic output and other issues, recalled one of his students, Li Shan, now a prominent Chinese financier who has been active in Hong Kong politics.现已成为中国知名金融人士、活跃于香港政坛的李山回忆说，朱镕基曾是该校深受学生欢迎的讲师，授课内容涵盖贸易、通货膨胀、经济产出等议题。Mr. Zhu persuaded Mr. Li to leave a Wall Street career at Goldman Sachs to work at the state-owned China Development Bank in Beijing.朱镕基还劝说李山放弃在华尔街高盛的职业生涯，回到北京的国有银行国家开发银行工作。“He is very easygoing. He’d have a big smile,” Mr. Li said in an interview for this obituary in 2022. “Normally, people think he is very serious, very tough. But at school, he was a completely different person.”“他非常随和，总是笑容满面，”李山在2022年为这篇讣告接受采访时说道。“通常人们认为他非常严肃、非常强硬。但在学校里，他完全是另一个人。”1998年，香港民众观看电视上的朱镕基。After working his way up the economic policy ranks in Beijing, Mr. Zhu became the mayor of Shanghai in 1988. He came under Mr. Deng’s wing soon after.在北京的经济政策体系中一路晋升后，朱镕基于1988年出任上海市市长。很快他便成为邓小平的得力助手。Starting in late January 1990, the elderly Mr. Deng began spending the first days of each Chinese New Year not in frozen Beijing but in milder Shanghai. There, Mr. Deng had long discussions about Mr. Zhu’s plans to redevelop the Pudong area across the Huangpu River from downtown Shanghai.从1990年1月底开始，年事已高的邓小平开始在气候适宜的上海而非冰天雪地的北京过年。在那里，邓小平与朱镕基就黄浦江对岸浦东地区的开发规划进行了深入探讨。The area was occupied by aging, state-owned warehouses and farms. Mr. Zhu envisioned turning it into the modern financial center with skyscrapers that it is today. Mr. Deng not only supported those plans but, after a second visit to Shanghai in early 1991, brought Mr. Zhu back to Beijing as a vice premier with special responsibility for trade and industrial production.当时，浦东仍遍布老旧的国有仓库和农田。朱镕基当时就设想将其打造成如今这般高楼林立的现代化金融中心。邓小平不仅支持这一构想，1991年初第二次访问上海后，他将朱镕基调回北京，出任副总理，分管对外贸易和工业生产。A year later, Mr. Deng elevated Mr. Zhu onto the Politburo Standing Committee — the innermost circle of power in the Chinese Communist Party. Six years after that, Mr. Zhu was premier, a post he held until 2003.一年后，邓小平将朱镕基提拔进入政治局常委会，这是中国共产党权力的核心圈层。六年后，朱镕基出任国务院总理，并一直任职至2003年。While Mr. Zhu was premier, his son, Levin Zhu Yunlai, was the most visible investment banker at the China International Capital Corporation. C.I.C.C., as it is known, worked with Wall Street banks to list the shares of big Chinese state-owned enterprises on Western stock exchanges.朱镕基担任总理期间，他的儿子朱云来是中国国际金融股份有限公司最受瞩目的投资银行家。中金公司与华尔街投行合作，推动大型中国国有企业在西方证券市场上市。In addition to his son, Mr. Zhu’s family included Lao An, his wife of seven decades, as well as a daughter, Zhu Yanlai. Hong Kong news media reported in 2019 that Mr. Zhu also had at least one granddaughter, the daughter of Zhu Yanlai.除儿子外，朱镕基的遗属还包括与其结婚70载的夫人劳安，以及女儿朱燕来。香港媒体2019年报道称，朱镕基至少还有一个孙辈，也就是朱燕来之女。Li You对本文有研究贡献。Keith Bradsher是《纽约时报》北京分社社长，此前曾任上海分社社长、香港分社社长、底特律分社社长，以及华盛顿记者。他在新冠疫情期间常驻中国进行报道。翻译：纽约时报中文网点击查看本文英文版。