Ex-President Zemin, who guided China’s economic rise, dead

Beijing, November 30

Former President Jiang Zemin, who led China out of isolation after the army crushed the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in 1989 and supported economic reforms that led to a decade of explosive growth, died Wednesday. He was 96. Jiang died of leukemia and multiple organ failure in Shanghai, where he was a former mayor and Communist Party secretary, official Xinhua News Agency reported.

A surprise choice to lead a divided Communist Party after the 1989 turmoil, Jiang saw China through history-making changes, including a revival of market-oriented reforms, the return of Hong Kong from British rule in 1997 and Beijing’s entry into the World Trade Organisation in 2001.

Even as China opened to the outside, Jiang’s government stamped out dissent. It jailed human rights, labour and pro-democracy activists and banned the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which the ruling party saw as a threat to its monopoly on power.

Jiang gave up his last official title in 2004, but remained a force behind the scenes in the wrangling that led to the rise of current President Xi Jinping.

Jiang was on the verge of retirement as Shanghai party leader in 1989 when he was drafted Deng Xiaoping to pull together the party and nation. He succeeded Zhao Ziyang, who was dismissed by Deng due to his sympathy for the student-led Tiananmen Square protesters and was held under house arrest till 2005.

In 13 years as party’s general secretary, China's most powerful post, Jiang guided the country’s rise to economic power by welcoming capitalists into the ruling party and pulling in foreign investment after China joined the WTO. China passed Germany and then Japan to become the second-largest economy after the US.

Jiang captured a political prize when Beijing was picked as the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics after failing in an earlier bid. Jiang is survived by his two sons and his wife, Wang Yeping, who worked in government bureaucracies in charge of state industries. — AP