BEIJING
\nChina\u2019s former leader Jiang Zemin, who steered the country through a transformational era from the late 1980s and into the new millennium, has died at the age of 96, the state-run \u2018Xinhua\u2019 news agency reported on Wednesday.
\nJiang took power in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square crackdown and led the world\u2019s most populous nation towards its emergence as a powerhouse on the global stage.
\n\u201cJiang Zemin passed away due to leukaemia and multiple organ failure in Shanghai at 12:13pm on November 30, 2022, at the age of 96, it was announced on Wednesday,\u201d \u2018Xinhua\u2019 reported.
\nThe news agency said the announcement of his death was made in a letter expressing \u201cprofound grief\u201d at Jiang\u2019s death, addressed to the whole Communist Party, military and Chinese people.
\nHis death came after all medical treatments had failed, it said.
\n\u201cComrade Jiang Zemin was an outstanding leader\u2026 a great Marxist, a great proletarian revolutionary, statesman, military strategist and diplomat, a long-tested communist fighter, and an outstanding leader of the great cause of socialism with Chinese haracteristics,\u201d \u2018Xinhua\u2019 quoted the letter as saying.
\nPrime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a tweet, expressed condolences on Jiang\u2019s demise.
\n\u201cLate President was a wise leader and a statesman. In Pakistan, we fondly remember him as a great friend who made valuable contributions in strengthening Pakistan-China relations,\u201d he said.
\nJiang\u2019s death comes as China sees a flare-up of anti-lockdown protests that have morphed into calls for wider political freedoms \u2014 the most widespread since the 1989 pro-democracy rallies that were crushed the year Jiang took power.
\n\u201cDuring the serious political turmoil in China in the spring and summer of 1989, Comrade Jiang Zemin supported and implemented the correct decision of the Party Central Committee to oppose unrest, defend the socialist state power and safeguard the fundamental interests of the people,\u201d state broadcaster CCTV said on Wednesday.
\nState broadcaster CCTV said flags would be flown at half-mast at Chinese government buildings.
\nWhen Jiang replaced Deng Xiaoping as leader in 1989, China was still in the early stages of economic modernisation.
\nBy the time he retired as president in 2003, China was a member of the World Trade Organization, Beijing had secured the 2008 Olympics, and the country was well on its way to superpower status.
\nAnalysts say Jiang and his \u201cShanghai Gang\u201d faction continued to exert influence over communist politics long after he left the top job.
\nIn the immediate aftermath of the announcement, Chinese state media all posted the same black-and-white photo of a chrysanthemum on their official accounts on social media platform Weibo.
\nJiang\u2019s entry on Baidu Encyclopedia, a Chinese site similar to Wikipedia, also turned black-and-white.
\nJiang is survived by his wife Wang Yeping and two sons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING China\u2019s former leader Jiang Zemin, who steered the country through a transformational era from the late 1980s and into the new millennium, has died at the age of 96, the state-run \u2018Xinhua\u2019 news agency reported on Wednesday. Jiang took power in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square crackdown and led the world\u2019s most populous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298463,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-298508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n