China’s ex-leader dead
FORMER Chinese president Jiang Zemin has died aged 96, state TV reported.
Mr Jiang led his country out of isolation after the crushing of prodemocracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and supported economic reforms that led to a decade of explosive growth.
A surprise choice to lead a divided Communist Party after the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, Mr Jiang saw China through historymaking 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 Organisation (WTO) in 2001.
Even as China opened to the outside, Mr Jiang’s government stamped out dissent at home.
It jailed human rights, labour and pro-democracy activists and banned the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which it viewed as a threat to the Communist Party’s monopoly on power.
Mr Jiang gave up his last official title in 2004 but remained a force behind the scenes in the wrangling that led to the rise of current President Xi Jinping, who took power in 2012.
Mr Xi has stuck to Mr Jiang’s mix of economic liberalisation and strict political controls.
Initially seen as a transitional leader, Mr Jiang was drafted on the verge of retirement with a mandate from then-paramount leader Deng Xiaoping to pull together the party and nation.
But he proved transformative. In 13 years as Communist Party general secretary, the top position in China, he guided China’s rise to global economic power by welcoming capitalists into the Communist Party and pulling in foreign investment after China joined the WTO.
He presided over the nation’s rise as a global manufacturer, the return of Hong Kong and Macao from Britain and Portugal and the achievement of a long-cherished dream: winning the competition to host the Olympic Games after an earlier rejection.
A former soap factory manager, Mr Jiang capped his career with the communist era’s first orderly succession, handing over his post as party leader in 2002 to Hu Jintao, who assumed the presidency the following year.
Mr Jiang tried to hold onto influence by staying on as chairman of the Central Military Commission, which controls the party’s military wing, the 2.3 million-member People’s Liberation Army. He gave up that post in 2004 following complaints he might divide the government.
Even after he left office, Mr Jiang had influence over promotions through his network of proteges.
He was said to be frustrated that Mr Deng had picked Mr Hu as the next leader, blocking Mr Jiang from installing his own successor. But Mr Jiang was considered successful in elevating allies to the party’s seven-member Standing Committee, China’s inner circle of power, when Mr Xi became leader in 2012.