Jiang Zemin

Jiang Zemin , 1926-, Chinese government official, general secretary of the Chinese Communist party (1989-2002) and president of China (1993-2003), b. Jiangsu prov. Trained as an electrical engineer, Jiang joined the party in 1946, was an industrial executive, and became minister of the Chinese electronics industry in 1983. Elected mayor of Shanghai in 1985, he also became first deputy secretary, then (1988) secretary of the Shanghai Communist party. A member of China's politburo since 1987, he was named to succeed Zhao Ziyang as Communist party general secretary after the army crushed prodemocracy demonstrations in Beijing and other cities in 1989. A protégé of Deng Xiaoping , he replaced Deng as head of the powerful government and party military commissions (1989-90) and was picked by Deng to succeed him. Regarded as a political pragmatist, Jiang consolidated power, extended Deng's economic reforms, and brought about the admission of private business owners into the party's membership. He also increased China's influence in international affairs, and brought China into the World Trade Organization. He retired as party leader in Nov., 2002, and president in Mar., 2003; Hu Jintao succeeded him in both positions. Jiang retained his positions on the military commissions until Sept., 2004, but he continued to retain influence in party affairs into Hu's second term as party leader.

Bibliography: See B. Gilley, Tiger on the Brink (1999).

Jiang Zemin (b. 17 Aug. 1926). President of the People's Republic of China 1993–2002 Born at Yangszhou (Jiangsu), he joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1946 and studied electrical engineering at Jiaotong University. He became a trainee at a motor vehicle plant in Moscow in 1955, and returned in 1956 to become director of one in China. He joined the Ministry of Machine-Building Industries (1962–70), but was purged in the Cultural Revolution. As a protégé of Deng Xiaoping, his career ascended swiftly after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. By 1985 he was Minister for Electronic Industries. In 1988 he became mayor and local CCP leader of China's biggest commercial centre, Shanghai. In this office he was relatively colourless. However, in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre his apparent lack of political ambition made him acceptable to the different factions of the party. He became a compromise candidate for the post of General Secretary of the CCP, to which he was elected on 24 June 1989. Thereafter, he was concerned with concentrating as much power as possible in his own hands, in anticipation of the ageing Deng's inevitable decline. In November 1989, he became chairman of the Central Military Commission of the CCP. On 27 March 1993, he was elected President. Until his death, Deng remained the ultimate source of appeal and authority, but during the 1990s Jiang occupied the three most powerful positions in the country, and in this sense became China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. His encouragement of economic competition and planned liberalization of the country's economy led to substantial growth rates throughout the 1990s. However, they also provided for an increasing differential between a bloated publicly-owned economy and thriving private enterprises. This in turn increased frictions within urban society, and within town and countryside. These disparities were due to increase with China's entry into the WTO and the opening up of its economic markets in late 2001. He was succeeded as President and as leader of the CCP by Hu Jintao, but remained powerful as chairman of the Central Military Commission.