Former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin (江澤民) died yesterday, state media reported, hailing him as a great communist revolutionary who helped quell democracy protests in 1989.
He was 96.
Jiang took power in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, in which the military used deadly force to end demonstrations and led China toward its emergence as a global economic powerhouse.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The major bodies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced his death through a letter that expressed “profound grief.”
“Jiang Zemin passed away due to leukemia and multiple organ failure in Shanghai at 12:13pm on Nov. 30, 2022, at the age of 96, it was announced on Wednesday,” Xinhua news agency said.
His death came after all medical treatments had failed, it added, citing the letter.
“Comrade Jiang Zemin was an outstanding leader ... 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 characteristics,” it said.
Jiang’s death comes amid a flare-up of protests against COVID-19 lockdowns that have morphed into calls for more political freedoms — the most widespread since the 1989 rallies.
When Jiang replaced Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) in 1989, China was still in the early stages of economic modernization. By the time he retired as leader in 2003, China was a member of the WTO, Beijing had secured the 2008 Olympics and the country was well on its way to superpower status.
Analysts say Jiang and his “Shanghai Gang” faction continued to exert influence over Chinese politics long after he left the top job, including in the selection of Xi Jinping (習近平) as president in 2012.
CCTV said that flags would be flown at half-mast at Chinese government buildings until his funeral, for which a date is not set.
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
RSS