Jiang Zemin
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| “ | Our Party must always represent the requirements for developing China's advanced productive forces, the orientation of China's advanced culture and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people. These are the inexorable requirements for maintaining and developing socialism, and the logical conclusion our Party has reached through hard exploration and great praxis. | „ |
| ~ Jiang Zemin |
Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 - 30 November 2022) was a retired Chinese politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002, as Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party from 1989 to 2004, and as President of the People's Republic of China from 1993 to 2003. Jiang represented the "core of the third generation" of Chinese Communist Party leaders since 1989.
Biography edit
Jiang Zemin was born in the city of Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China on 17 August 1926. His ancestral home was the Jiang Village in Jingde County, Anhui. This was also the hometown of a number of prominent figures in Chinese academic and intellectual establishments. Jiang grew up during the years of Imperial Japanese occupation. His uncle, also his foster father, Jiang Shangqing, died fighting the Japanese in World War II and is considered in Jiang Zemin's time to be a national hero.
Jiang joined the CCP in 1946 and graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University the following year with a degree in electrical engineering. He worked in several factories as an engineer before receiving further technical training in the Soviet Union about 1955. He subsequently headed technological research institutes in various parts of China.
In 1980 Jiang became vice minister of the state commission on imports and exports. Two years later he became vice minister of the electronics industry and from 1983 to 1985 was its minister. He had meanwhile become a member of the Central Committee of the CCP in 1982. Named mayor of Shanghai in 1985, he joined the Political Bureau in 1987.
The Chinese leadership was reshuffled following the forceful suppression of demonstrations in Beijing and elsewhere in 1989, with Jiang succeeding Zhao Ziyang as general secretary of the CCP. He was a compromise choice who combined a commitment to continued free-market economic reforms with a determination to preserve the CCP’s monopoly on political power. Also in 1989 he succeeded Deng Xiaoping as chairman of the party’s Central Military Commission. In 1993 he became president of China, elected by the National People’s Congress.
With Deng’s death in 1997, Jiang became paramount leader and consolidated his power. He began to reduce the state’s ownership and control of some of China’s 300,000 industries, beginning with a privatization plan in 1997. During the late 1990s Jiang attempted to improve the country’s uneasy relationship with the United States.
In June 1999, Jiang established an extralegal department, the 6–10 Office, to crack down on Falun Gong. Cook and Lemish state this was because Jiang was worried that the popular new religious movement was "quietly infiltrating the CCP and state apparatus." On 20 July, security forces arrested thousands of Falun Gong organizers they identified as leaders. The persecution that followed was characterized a nationwide campaign of propaganda, as well as the large-scale arbitrary imprisonment and coercive reeducation of Falun Gong organizers, sometimes resulting in death due to mistreatment in detention.
The Falun Gong affiliated newspaper Epoch Times has published a book deeply critical of Jiang titled Anything for Power: The Real Story of China’s Jiang Zemin, claiming various scandals and human rights violations attributed to Jiang and during his presidency, including his family background, crackdown on Falun Gong, and an alleged relationship with singer Song Zuying.
In 1997 he participated in the first U.S.-China summit in almost a decade, and at a follow-up meeting in 1998 he openly discussed his human rights record, which had been criticized by the West. In 2002 Jiang resigned as general secretary of the CCP and the following year stepped down as president after serving the maximum two five-year terms; Hu Jintao succeeded him in both positions. Jiang remained in charge of the Central Military Commission until stepping down in favour of Hu in September 2004.
Jiang continued to make official appearances after giving up his last title in 2004. In China's strictly defined protocol sequence, Jiang's name always appeared immediately after Hu Jintao's and in front of the remaining sitting members of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee. In 2007, Jiang was seen with Hu Jintao on stage at a ceremony celebrating the 80th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army, and toured the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution with Li Peng, Zhu Rongji, and other former senior officials.
On 8 August 2008, Jiang appeared at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. He also stood beside Hu Jintao during the mass parade celebrating the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China in October 2009.
Beginning in July 2011, false reports of Jiang's death began circulating on the news media outside of mainland China and on the internet. While Jiang may indeed have been ill and receiving treatment, the rumours were denied by official sources. On 9 October 2011, Jiang made his first public appearance since his premature obituary in Beijing at a celebration to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution. Jiang reappeared at the 18th Party Congress in October 2012, and took part in the 65th Anniversary banquet of the founding of the People's Republic of China in October 2014. At the banquet he sat next to Xi Jinping, who had then succeeded Hu Jintao as party CCP General Secretary. In September 2015, Jiang attended the parade celebrating 70 years since end of World War II; there, Jiang again sat next to Xi Jinping and Hu Jintao. He appeared on 29 May 2017 at Shanghai Technology University.
After Xi Jinping assumed power, Jiang's position in the protocol sequence of leaders retreated; while he was often seated next to Xi Jinping at official events, his name was often reported after all standing members of the Communist Party's Politburo. Jiang reappeared at the 19th Party Congress on 18 October 2017. He appeared on 29 July 2019 at the funeral of Li Peng. He also stood beside Xi Jinping during 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China mass parade in October 2019.