Once sent into rural exile to do manual labor for praising reforms in other communist countries, Zhu pushed through a dizzying array of changes as premier, China's top economic post, from 1998 to 2003 under former President Jiang Zemin. Zhu clashed with Communist Party conservatives and state industry bosses as he pushed state-owned companies to become efficient and profitable. That cost millions of layoffs, but helped propel China to overtake Japan as the second-largest economy behind the United States in 2010. Those changes helped to keep economic growth above 8% a year from 2000 to 2010, peaking at 14.2% in 2007. Zhu led efforts to secure WTO membership following marathon negotiations that began in the 1980s.