![]() īy lauding Jiang for sustaining Marxism-Leninism in China through the end of the Cold War, Xi is also likely seeking to cast his own consolidation of power at the recently concluded 20 th Party Congress and suppressing of the recent “white paper revolution” (白纸革命, bai zhi geming) protests through a mix of intimidation and inducement in a favorable light ( rfi, December 4 China Brief, October 24). With this praise, Xi credited Jiang for not only consolidating the crackdown on dissent following the June 4 Tiananmen Square incident, but also for guiding the People’s Republic of China (PRC) through a particularly challenging international environment in the early 1990s largely defined by Western-imposed economic isolation and the collapse of the Communism in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, which was viewed as an existential threat in CCP ranks. In his remarks at the official memorial service for Jiang on December 6, Xi extolled his forebear for guiding the CCP through an “extremely complicated situation at home and abroad” at tumultuous juncture in June 1989. The timing of Jiang’s death was striking as it occurred amidst the largest public pushback against CCP rule since the student protest movement in spring 1989, which culminated in the June 3-4 Tiananmen Square massacre that preceded his assumption of CCP leadership at the 13th Central Committee’s Fourth Plenum that same month ( China Brief, November 28). During the week-long mourning period for Jiang, text and graphics for everything from newspapers to fast food menus were printed in grayscale ( Twitter, December 1). In the days to come, public life was dominated by eulogies to the “core” of the CCP’s third generation leadership, who was lauded by state media as “an outstanding leader with high prestige, a great Marxist, a great proletarian revolutionist, statesman, military strategist, and diplomat” ( People’s Daily, December 2 Xinwen Lianbo, December 6). Banners at the airport read “Eternal glory to Comrade Jiang Zemin!” and the waiting officials wore black armbands and white flowers on their breasts. On December 1, Jiang’s remains were transported from Shanghai to Beijing, where a delegation, led by General Secretary Xi Jinping, comprising current and former senior Party leaders greeted the plane upon its arrival at Xijao Airport ( Xinhua, December 2). ![]() On November 30, with mass protests only recently suppressed in Beijing and Shanghai and still simmering in Guangzhou and Chongqing, state media notified the “whole party, army and country” that former General Secretary Jiang Zemin, who led the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from mid-1989 to 2002, had died at age 96 ( Xinhuanet, November 30 8world, December 1). ![]()
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