Zhu Rongji is determined to go down in history as a reformer. This is evident from the nation's 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-2005), whose drafting has begun under the premier's supervision.
Given the 'Great Rectifier's' background in 'macro-economic controls and adjustments', it is unrealistic to expect an unreserved commitment to the marketplace. After all, a five-year plan, no matter how well-crafted, seems out of place in the 21st century. Moreover, the economic tsar will continue to ask his vast team of number-crunching technocrats to lay down production targets and quotas.
Yet Mr Zhu, 70, is a man in a big hurry. Given his age, it is most unlikely that his term as head of government, which runs into early 2003, will be extended. The five-year plan, which will set the direction for socio-economic development well into the new century, is Mr Zhu's best chance to leave his mark on history.
And it is clear that he wants to be remembered as the man who has taken Deng Xiaoping's economic liberalisation to a new threshold.
At the outset, however, it is important to point out quite a big chunk of the master plan consists of traditional, 'East-Asiatic' government fiats and guidance a la Japan and South Korea, whose economic take-offs Mr Zhu has studied closely.
Economists knowledgeable about the drafting process say its top-most concern is to pinpoint new areas of growth, mostly in hi-tech areas.
