Former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin died in Shanghai on Wednesday, state-run media said.
Jiang Zemin, 96, died from leukemia and multiple organ failure at 12:13 p.m. local time (0413GMT), according to Xinhua News Agency.
The announcement of his death was made in a joint “letter” addressed to Chinese people by various government organizations, including the Communist Party of China (CPC), the news agency said.
He was at the forefront of Chinese politics for 15 years, serving as president from 1993 to 2003 and as general secretary of the CPC from 1989 to 2002. He was also the chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004.
In 1985, he served as mayor of Shanghai and deputy secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee.
At the First Plenary Session of the 13th CPC Central Committee in 1987, he was elected to the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and served as secretary of the CPC’s Shanghai Municipal Committee.
“During the serious political turmoil in China in the spring and summer of 1989, Comrade Jiang Zemin supported and implemented the correct decision of the Party Central Committee to oppose unrest, defend the socialist state power and safeguard the fundamental interests of the people,” state broadcaster CCTV reported.
“Comrade Jiang Zemin was an outstanding leader enjoying high prestige acknowledged by the whole Party, the entire military and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups, a great Marxist, a great proletarian revolutionary, statesman, military strategist and diplomat, a long-tested communist fighter, and an outstanding leader of the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics,” the joint letter, which was quoted by the news agency, stated.
“He was the core of the CPC’s third generation of central collective leadership and the principal founder of the Theory of Three Represents,” it added.
*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid
Source: Anadolu Agency