1926.8.17.–2022.11.30.
○ Natural causes
The “core” plucked from Shanghai in 1989 who led post-Tiananmen China into the market economy and the “Three Represents”
The compromise leader plucked from Shanghai after the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, he became the "core" of the third generation and steered the party toward a market economy.
An electrical engineer from Jiangsu who trained at a Soviet car plant, he became mayor of Shanghai in 1985 and its party secretary in 1987. In 1989 he closed the liberal World Economic Herald and defused the Shanghai protests without major bloodshed, and in June was chosen to replace Zhao Ziyang as general secretary. After Deng Xiaoping’s southern tour in 1992 he made the “socialist market economy” the party’s goal and oversaw state-enterprise reform, WTO accession and the return of Hong Kong. Stepping down as general secretary in 2002 and Military Commission chairman in 2004, he left the “Three Represents”, which opened the party to private entrepreneurs. He died of leukaemia in 2022.
Also known as: Chiang Tse-min
Activities and affiliations
-
1946–2022
Political and party leadership
- General Secretary, CCP Central CommitteeHeads of state, government and party of China1989–2002
- Shanghai CCP Secretary1987–1989
-
1985–1988
People’s Republic of China state institutionsMayor of Shanghai
Government and administration -
1993–2003
People’s Republic of China state institutionsPresident of the People’s Republic of ChinaHeads of state, government and party of China
Political and party leadership -
People’s Republic of China state institutionsPresidentMain
Political and party leadership
Career Timeline
- 1946–2022CCP member
- 1985–1988Mayor of Shanghai
- 1987–1989Shanghai CCP Secretary
- 1989–2004Chairman, Central Military Commission
- 1989.06.24–2002.11.15General Secretary, CCP Central Committee
- 1993.03.27–2003.03.15President of the People’s Republic of China
Related historical events
- 1966–1976The Cultural Revolutionofficial removed at the start of the Cultural RevolutionAt the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, he was removed from his post and sent to a May Seventh Cadre School.
- 1976–1992Reform and opening: the Deng Xiaoping eraGeneral secretary who adopted the southern tour lineMade the socialist market economy the goal at the 1992 congress.
- 1978–1979The Sino-Vietnamese WarGeneral Secretary of the CCPMet the Vietnamese leaders at Chengdu in 1990 and issued the normalisation communiqué in November 1991.
- 1989The Tiananmen protests and the crackdown of 4 June 1989The new general secretary chosen from ShanghaiContained the Shanghai protests, closed the World Economic Herald and became general secretary in June.
From Engineer to Industrial Administrator
Jiang Zemin’s early career lay in electrical engineering and machine building. He graduated in electrical engineering from National Chiao Tung University in 1947 and joined the Chinese Communist Party while at university. After the founding of the People’s Republic, he was assigned to Shanghai No. 2 Design Bureau in 1952. In 1954 he worked on the First Ministry of Machine Building’s five-year-plan design work before being transferred to a vehicle-production facility in Changchun.
In 1955, Jiang began training at Moscow’s Stalin Automobile Works and, on his return, worked at Changchun’s First Automobile Works. His work then increasingly shifted from technical engineering to administrative and political responsibilities. He became deputy director of the Shanghai Electric Research Institute in 1962 and, in 1966, director and deputy party secretary of a thermal-engineering research institute in Wuhan. At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, he was removed from that post and sent to a May Seventh Cadre School.
In 1970, as deputy director of the Ministry of Machine Building’s Foreign Affairs Bureau, Jiang led an expert team in Romania that established fifteen machinery-manufacturing plants. This industrial and technical-administrative career preceded his move, after 1979, into policy work concerning special economic zones and the electronics industry.