Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin died on Wednesday at the age of 96, Chinese state media reported.
Jiang died of leukemia and multiple organ failure in Shanghai at 12:13 pm, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Zemin was President of the People’s Republic of China from 1993 to 2003 and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002. It was under his rule that Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997.
Rising from obscurity to head the Communist Party of China after the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, former Chinese President Jiang Zemin was expected to be just another passing figure, destined to be a footnote in history.
However, Zemin has achieved a string of achievements after pulling China out of diplomatic isolation in the post-Tiananmen era, re-establishing relations with the United States and overseeing an unprecedented economic boom.
Jiang was last seen in public in October 2019, among other former leaders, watching a military parade in Tiananmen Square marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Under Jiang, China weathered the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, and won the bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Jiang counted among his proudest achievements the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 after more than 150 years of British rule, even though the return of the territory was negotiated by Deng Xiaoping in 1984.
Despite rumors that he wanted to cling to power, Jiang retired as party chief in 2002, handing the reins to Hu Jintao in China’s first bloodless leadership transition since the 1949 revolution.
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