Jiang Zemin dies
KUWAIT CITY, Nov 30, (Agencies): His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent a cable on Wednesday to Chinese President Xi Jinping to express his sincere condolences for the death of ex-president Jiang Zemin.
His Highness expressed sympathy with the family of the late leader and the people of China.
His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah also sent a cable on Wednesday to Chinese President Xi Jinping to express his sincere condolences over the death of ex-president Jiang Zemin.
His Highness the Crown Prince also expressed sympathy with the family of the late leader and the people of China.
Zemin, who led China out of isolation after the army crushed the Tiananmen Square prodemocracy protests in 1989 and supported economic reforms that led to a decade of explosive growth, died Wednesday. He was 96.
Jiang, who was president for a decade until 2003 and led the ruling Communist Party for 13 years until 2002, died of leukemia and multiple organ failure in Shanghai, state media reported.
His death comes after the party faced its most widespread public show of opposition in decades when crowds called for leader Xi Jinping to resign during weekend protests of anti-virus controls that are confining millions of people to their homes.
A surprise choice to lead a divided Communist Party after the 1989 turmoil, Jiang saw China through history-making changes including a revival of market-oriented reforms, the return of Hong Kong from British rule in 1997 and Beijing’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001.
Even as China opened to the outside, Jiang’s government stamped out dissent. It jailed human rights, labor and pro-democracy activists and banned the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which the ruling party saw as a threat to its monopoly on power.
Jiang gave up his last official title in 2004 but remained a force behind the scenes in wrangling that led to the rise of Xi, who took power in 2012. Xi has tightened political control, crushed China’s little remaining dissent and reasserted the dominance of state industry.
Chinese state TV devoted 48 minutes of an extended evening news broadcast to Jiang’s death. He was shown chatting with farmers, touring factories and meeting foreign leaders.
The party declared him a “great proletarian revolutionary” and “longtested communist fighter.”