BEIJING: Former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, whose market reforms helped drive China's extraordinary economic rise, has died from illness at the age of 97, state media reported on Wednesday (Aug 12). Zhu served as vice-premier from 1991 to 1998 and then as premier until early 2003. He was "an outstanding member of the Communist Party of China, a long-tested and loyal communist fighter", Xinhua quoted his obituary as saying. "The life of comrade Zhu Rongji was a life of revolution, a life of struggle, a life of glory," it said. ROLE IN CHINA'S ECONOMIC REFORMZhu graduated from Beijing's elite Tsinghua University, joining the Communist Party in 1949, the same year Mao Zedong declared the People's Republic of China.