BEIJING—Jiang Zemin, the previous Chinese language chief who got here to energy after the quelling of the Tiananmen Sq. democracy protests and presided over the market-oriented adjustments that grew to become China into an international financial juggernaut, died of leukemia on Wednesday, state media stated. He was once 96.
Mr. Jiang retired as Communist Birthday celebration leader in 2002, stepped down as president in 2003, and left as head of the birthday party’s Central Army Fee the following 12 months. In the back of the scenes, he controlled to wield considerable affect inside the secretive birthday party elite, putting in allies within the management workforce of his successor, Hu Jintao. From retirement, birthday party insiders say, he decisively sponsored Xi Jinping’s ascent to birthday party chief.
