BEIJING—
Jiang Zemin,
the former Chinese leader who came to power after the quelling of the Tiananmen Square democracy protests and presided over the market-oriented changes that turned China into a global economic juggernaut, died of leukemia on Wednesday, state media said. He was 96.
Mr. Jiang retired as Communist Party chief in 2002, stepped down as president in 2003, and left as head of the party’s Central Military Commission the next year. Behind the scenes, he managed to wield substantial influence within the secretive party elite, installing allies in the leadership team of his successor,
Hu Jintao.
From retirement, party insiders say, he decisively backed
Xi Jinping’s
ascent to party leader.
Mr. Jiang made infrequent public appearances in recent years. He was shown on state television attending a Beijing parade marking Communist China’s 70th birthday in 2019, but notably missed the party’s centennial celebrations in 2021. The former leader also didn’t appear at the party’s twice-a-decade national congress in 2022, when Mr. Xi secured a third term as general secretary in a break from the 10-year leadership cycle his predecessor set.
A career technocrat trained in Russia, Mr. Jiang was plucked into the leadership at a time of acute crisis. The 1989 military assault on protesters in central Beijing’s Tiananmen Square—which left hundreds dead and was broadcast around the world—made China an international pariah, fractured the party and prompted calls within the government to halt economic reforms that had begun a decade earlier.
Former President Jiang Zemin, center, joined President Xi Jinping, third from left, and former President Hu Jintao, second from left, in attending a 2019 celebration commemorating the 70th anniversary of Communist China’s founding.
Photo:
Ng Han Guan/Associated Press
Party elders chose Mr. Jiang as general secretary in part because, as party boss of Shanghai, he had successfully quashed protests in the…
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