China’s former leader Jiang Zemin, who came to power after the Tiananmen Square protests, has died at 96.
State media said he had died just after 12:00 local time in Shanghai, on Wednesday.
Jiang presided over a time when China opened up on a vast scale and saw high-speed growth.
His death comes as China sees some of its most serious protests since Tiananmen, with many demonstrating against Covid restrictions.
A Chinese Communist Party statement said he died of leukaemia and multiple organ failure.
It added that he was recognised “as an outstanding leader with high prestige” and “a long-tested Communist fighter”.
State media outlets, including the Global Times and the Xinhua news agency, turned their websites black and white in tribute.
Jiang rose to power after the bloody 1989 crackdown on protesters in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, which led to China being ostracised internationally.
The event sparked a bitter power struggle at the top of the Communist Party between hard-line reactionaries and reformers.
It led to Jiang, who had originally been seen as a plodding bureaucrat, being elevated to high office.
He was chosen as a compromise leader, in the hope he would unify hardliners and more liberal elements.
Under his stewardship, a formidable economy was forged, the Communists tightened their grip on power, and China took its place at the top table of world powers.
He oversaw the peaceful handover of Hong Kong in 1997, and China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 which intertwined the country with the global economy.
BBC
