Former President Jiang Zemin DIEd At The Age Of 96, The Chinese Communist Party: Irreversible Loss

Jiang Zemin during a visit to the US Navy base at Pearl Harbor Hawaii. (Wikimedia Commons/US NAVY/Petty Officer 2nd Class/Tina M. Acterman)

JAKARTA - Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who led the country for a decade of rapid economic growth after the 1989 Tiananmen Incident, died on Wednesday at the age of 96, Chinese state media reported.

Jiang died in his hometown of Shanghai, right after noon on Wednesday for the failure of various organs, the Xinhua news agency said, issuing letters to Chinese people from the ruling Communist Party, parliament, Cabinet, and military.

"The death of Jiang Zemin is an infinite loss for our party and our military and our people from all ethnic groups," the letter read, saying its announcement with deep sadness.

Wednesday's letter describes our beloved "Camerad Jiang Zemin" as an extraordinary leader with a high prestige, a great Marxist, statesman, military strategist and diplomat, and communist warrior who has long been tested.

Born in Yangzhou on August 17, 1926, Jiang came to power after the Tiananmen Tragedy that rocked the country in 1989, served as Secretary General of the Communist Party from 1989 to 2002 and later as President of China from 1993 to 2003, citing The National News.

For decades before Jiang's rule, China emerged as a major player in global trade after market reforms of Deng Xiaoping, but Jianglah led China's emergence as an economic force.

He also led Hong Kong's return from British rule in 1997 and Beijing's entry to the World Trade Organization in 2001.

Jiang was also the one who led China out of international isolation after the Tiananmen Square protests, but was criticized for his crackdown on criticism by the government and the spiritual group Falun Gong.

Jiang has accumulated China's most powerful leadership body, the Politburo Standing Committee, with its own students, many of them from the so-called 'Shanghai Clique' or 'Shanghai Gang'.

Despite rumors that he wanted to defend power, he retired and left control of Hu in the country's first peaceful leadership transition since the 1949 revolution. He relinquished his final official post as chairman of the central military commission in 2004.

Jiang Zemin was last seen in public in October 2019. Bad health rumors emerged after he missed the party congress in October.