Urgency for Reform Rises as Bold Pioneers Fade

An emotional outpouring tempered by a sense of business left unfinished has followed the death of Du Runsheng, a former government official known as China's "father of rural reform."

Du, who died on October 9 in Beijing at the age of 102, became the latest of several well-known pioneers of the country's reform process to die in recent months. Each retired from public office years ago, yet none had been forgotten.