EKO HOT BLOG reports that former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who led the country for a decade of rapid economic growth after the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989, died on Wednesday at the age of 96, prompting a wave of nostalgia for the more liberal times he oversaw.
Jiang died in his home city of Shanghai just after noon on Wednesday of leukemia and multiple organ failure, Xinhua news agency said, publishing a letter to the Chinese people by the ruling Communist Party, parliament, Cabinet, and the military.
Jiang rose to power after the bloody 1989 crackdown on protestors 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, the Communists tightened their grip on power, and China took its place at the top table of world powers.
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