China's former president Jiang Zemin dies, aged 96
The Independent|December 01, 2022
The former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, who led the country through a decade of rapid economic growth after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, has died aged 96.
NAMITA SINGH
China's former president Jiang Zemin dies, aged 96

He died of leukaemia, Xinhua news agency said, publishing a letter to the Chinese people by the ruling Communist Party.

"Comrade Jiang Zemin's death is an incalculable loss to our party and our military and our people of all ethnic groups," the letter read.

His death comes at a tumultuous time in China, where authorities are trying to suppress widespread protests against heavy-handed Covid laws and other restrictions to social freedom, while the economy is in the midst of a sharp slowdown.

Even though Jiang put down the pro-democracy demonstrations that culminated in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, some in China yesterday expressed nostalgia for Jiang's era as a time of optimism as well as hope for economic liberalisation and political freedom.

Jiang, though he could have a fierce temper, also had an informal and even quirky side, sometimes bursting into song, reciting poems or playing musical instruments - in contrast to his buttoned-up successor Hu, as well as to Xi.

Jiang had faded from public sight and last appeared publicly alongside current and former leaders atop Beijing's Tiananmen Gate at a 2019 military parade celebrating the party's 70th anniversary in power.

This story is from the December 01, 2022 edition of The Independent.

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This story is from the December 01, 2022 edition of The Independent.

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