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Former Chinese Leader, Jiang Zemin Dies At 96

CHINA
November 30, 2022

Xinhua reports that "Jiang Zemin passed away due to leukemia and multiple organ failure in Shanghai at 12:13 p.m. on November 30, 2022, at the age of 96, it was announced on Wednesday.”

Xinhua, State media, has reported the death of former Chinese leader, Jiang Zemin, at the age of 96.

Xinhua reports that "Jiang Zemin passed away due to leukemia and multiple organ failure in Shanghai at 12:13 p.m. on November 30, 2022, at the age of 96, it was announced on Wednesday.”

Zemin is one of the major figures of Chinese history in recent decades as he steered the country through a transformational era from the late 1980s and into the new millennium, according to AFP.

He took power in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square crackdown and replaced Deng Xiaoping in 1989 and led China as it emerged as a global powerhouse.

It could be recalled that Zemin also oversaw the peaceful handover of Hong Kong in 1997, but he was criticised for a heavy-handed crackdown on the religious sect Falun Gong in 1999, according to a BBC report.

Zemin’s rise to power after the bloody 1989 crackdown on protesters in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square, which led to China being ostracized internationally sparked a bitter power struggle at the top of China's Communist Party between hard-line reactionaries and reformers.

The event led to Zemin, who had originally been seen as a plodding bureaucrat, being elevated to high office, as he was chosen as a compromise leader in the hope that he would unify hardliners and more liberal elements.

 

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