Zhu Rongji’s death a reminder of what US-China relations have lost

David M Lampton is professor emeritus at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, a former president of the China-relations" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="186100" data-entity-type="organization">National Committee on China-relations" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="110704" data-entity-type="event">US-China relations, and author of “Living China-relations" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="110704" data-entity-type="event">US-China relations: From Cold War to Cold War”.With the death of former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji, both China and the wider world have lost a great leader.Zhu took personal risks for better US-China ties. He believed that productive Sino-American relations were good for China and for the world.He was a global leader before China had achieved its current great power status. In mid-1990, when I was president of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, our organisation invited Zhu, then Shanghai mayor, to the United States. Several colleagues and I spent nearly three weeks travelling to several US cities with him.