The former head of state and party leader has died aged 96, according to state news agency Xinhua. Zemin is considered the architect of China’s economic boom.
Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin passed away on Wednesday at the age of 96. State news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday. He contracted leukemia and died in Shanghai as a result of multiple organ failure.
Jiang Zemin came to power after the 1989 crackdown on student protests in Tiananmen Square. He is considered the architect of China’s economic boom.
File Image: Zemin on the big screen. In 2021, the Chinese Communist Party celebrated its centenary. (c) Getty Images (Lintao Zhang)In recent weeks there were already rumors that he was not well or that he could have died. “Comrade Jiang Zemin” was recognized as an “outstanding leader of high prestige” in the state agency’s death notice. He was a “great Marxist and a great proletarian revolutionary”.
China’s rise driven
Born on August 17, 1926, Jiang Zemin was General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1989 to 2002 and President from 1993 to 2003. After the bloody crackdown on the democracy movement on June 4, 1989 and the overthrow of the reformist party leader Zhao Ziyang, the then mayor of Shanghai was appointed as the new leader of the party.
While Jiang Zemin relied on domestic repression, he continued the economic reform course of legendary head of state and party leader Deng Xiaoping. In the 1980s, he initiated the rise of the Communist People’s Republic by enacting capitalist reforms. Jiang Zemin then made the country the second largest economy in the world behind the US and also included it in the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001.
The former president remained involved in political affairs even after he retired from public office. He can be seen pictured with head of state and party leader Xi Jinping. (c) Getty Images (Lintao Zhang)The official tribute to the deceased on Wednesday spoke vaguely of the “serious political turmoil” of the late 1980s and early 1990s in China and around the world. Indirect reference was also made to the collapse of the Soviet Union. At this “historic crossroads”, Jiang Zemin led the Party, the military and the people to promote socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Even after retiring from public office, the senior continued to exert considerable influence behind the scenes, starting around 2002 with Hu Jintao. As a “strong man” in the background, he often pulled the strings. However, the new head of state and party leader, Xi Jinping, was not part of his political clique. Many of his followers fell victim to Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign. Critics accused the current head of state and party of getting rid of his opponents.
(APA/dpa/Portal/Red.)