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Zhu is widely admired for his integrity in a society where holding an official post is all too often a license to enrich oneself. But unable to trust others, Zhu is obsessed with micromanaging everything that comes across his desk. He reads many of the 16,000 letters a year sent to him by ordinary citizens with their grievances. "It is good for him to read them and know how people feel," says a Zhu aide. "But he should not be doing that too often. He should be dealing with the big problems."
How will China's marksman stand up to Washington's ire? Yugoslavia may be preoccupying Capitol Hill, but Zhu cannot pass entirely under the radar of China critics like Senator Jesse Helms. Zhu "knows the trip won't be easy, but he is amazingly calm," says Fred Hu, head of Asia Economic Research for Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong.
For all his volcanic impatience, the English-speaking Zhu will also bring charm, shrewdness and a disarming sense of humor to the task of softening U.S. opinion on China. He will try to use those qualities to deflect questions on human rights and the nuclear-espionage affair. In last month's press conference he made his audience laugh when he complained that a recent business-magazine cover picture made him "look like a dead man." He then went on to admit that difficulties in the Chinese economy over the past year were greater than he had expected: "I have not done a good job."
A communist with a sense of humor who admits he is wrong? Even Helms might hold his fire on that.
--With reporting by Jaime A. FlorCruz and Mia Turner/Beijing and Wendy Kan and Isabella Ng/Hong Kong