Former President of the Peoples Republic of China, Jiang Zemin has died at the age of 96.
Jiang, who led China through a transformational era of rapid economic growth and industrialization died of leukaemia and multiple organ failure in Shanghai on Wednesday, according to a statement from the Communist Party of China (CPC).
“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,” the statement reads in part.
According to state media, flags would be flown at half-mast at Chinese government buildings while a date for his funeral will be announced in due time.
Born on the 17th of August 1926 and educated in pre-communist Shanghai, Jiang was trained to be an electrical engineer. He joined the Communist Party in college and studied in the former Soviet Union in the 1950s. Rising gradually through the party ranks, he became the minister of electronics industry in 1983 before being named the mayor of Shanghai two years later. He was elevated as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party from 1989 to 2002, as Chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, and as President of China from 1993 to 2003.
Under his leadership, China experienced substantial economic growth. His economic and political reforms saw the return of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom in 1997 and Macau from Portugal in 1999. China also improved its relations with the outside world, while the Communist Party maintained its tight control over state affairs. By the time Jiang 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.
Jiang is survived by his wife, two sons and two grandchildren.
