China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, heaped praise on late president Jiang Zemin on Tuesday in a show of unity among the ruling elite just over a week after the Nationwide protests defy Beijing’s authority.
Despite atheism, the ruling Communist Party of China bids its late leaders off with an almost religious solemnity, and a memorial service for Mr. Jiang, who has passed away. Wednesday at 96, Is no exception. Mr. Xi gave a 51 minutes Jiang’s eulogy was filled with praise while avoiding hints of any personal and political differences between the two leaders.
“We love and respect Comrade Jiang Zemin and honor Comrade Jiang Zemin, because he devoted all his heart, soul, and strength to the Chinese people.” Mr. Xi speaks at the memorial ceremony ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
The event was attended by thousands of officials, soldiers and dignitaries, who sat under the stands, wearing masks. Even as the party seeks to show solidarity within its ranks, the masks are a visual reminder of the coronavirus pandemic control measures that have sparked protests across China.
Protests against China’s particularly strict “Covid-free” lockdown policy broke out across the country in late November, sometimes escalating into calls for Xi and the party to step down. The Chinese government has begun to relax some anti-pandemic measures that have angered the public, even as the number of corona virus infections continues to rise. Beijing said on Tuesday that it will no longer require residents to present negative Covid test results to enter supermarkets, shopping malls, the city’s main airport and other public places.
The protests are the most widespread and boldest in China since 1989, and are especially an affront to Mr. Xi, who has tightened the party’s grip on society and has made an effort. did his best to quell dissent during his first decade in power.
At this sensitive time, the funeral events for Jiang also provide an opportunity for Xi to pressure the leadership and the country to rally around him, Chinese political analysts say .
Many ceremonies commemorate the death of former Chinese leaders prescribed in the rules was developed over decades to mark the departures of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and other great party figures.
Deng Yuwen, a former editor of a now-living Communist Party newspaper, said the tributes to Jiang are in some ways similar to those of Deng, one of China’s founding revolutionaries. Communist Republic and is a much more important figure in Chinese history. in U.S.A. Mr. Xi’s eulogy on Tuesday was as long as the eulogy that Mr. Jiang sent Deng Xiaoping when he died in 1997.
Understanding the protests in China
Deng said in a phone interview: “With Jiang passing away, he will certainly receive a high honor, but I guess the extent of it has surprised many people. “In a sense, this also implies that outsiders taking to the streets will not have a chance to split the party leadership.”
Jiang’s mourning also tacitly marks the end of an era in Chinese politics when he and other party senators, even in retirement, remain powerful figures behind the scenes.
After Mr. Jiang relinquished his last major post, as the party’s military chairman, in 2004 his patrons maintained his influence over politics. Many experts and insiders say, sometimes referred to as the “Shanghai gang” after Jiang’s longtime establishment, they limited his successor to Hu Jintao and helped Xi emerge with as Ho’s successor.
But Mr. Giang’s influence has waned over the past decade, and after Mr. Ho’s retirement in 2012, he has had little effect. At the party congress in October, Mr. Xi eliminated those of Mr. Hu’s protégés, including Premier Li Keqiang, and set up a new high-level leadership that completely dominated his loyalists. .
“The death of Jiang Zemin means that this old politics is completely over,” Deng said. “Things have ended before, but his departure is an even stronger symbol of that.”
The carefully planned ceremonies began shortly after state media reported Mr. Jiang’s death last week. Xinhua News Agency, the official news agency of the government, gave a speech in memory of Mr. Jiang. Major Chinese news websites and newspapers switched to mournful monochrome. In Shanghai, where Mr. Jiang died, a convoy escorted his body to an airport, where it was taken to Beijing.
Since then, party newspapers have published articles praising Mr. They have touted his role in strengthening the party after the military suppressed pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. They praised Mr. Jiang for pushing for prescribed reforms. China’s market orientation and accelerate military modernization.
The mourning culminated on Monday with a funeral attended by leaders and Mr. Jiang’s family. Chinese state television showed Mr. Xi and other officials — retired and incumbent — walking in a slow, reverent circle around Jiang’s open coffin, offering condolences to his widow. Jiang, Vuong Diep Binh, and bowed three times before his body.
Mr. Hu, the retired leader, also walked around the coffin, accompanied by an aide to help him stabilize. At the party congress in October, Mr. Hu was sudden escort off the stage — an exit that fueled widespread speculation that Xi was purging the former leader in a dramatic show of power. (Chinese state media later reported that Mr. Hu was unwell.)
Late Monday, soldiers and a carefully controlled crowd dressed in black lined the avenue where the hearse carrying Jiang’s body drove to the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in western Beijing.
For many Chinese, the sadness over Mr. Jiang’s death is profound.
Mr. Jiang was at times a tough leader, especially when he launched the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, a spiritual movement the party saw as a threat to its power. But many in China, especially businessmen and liberal intellectuals, remember him more for driving market changes, securing China’s accession to the World Trade Organization and accepting it. receive more open debate about political change than it does today.
“With his appreciation for reform and opening up, his determination to keep up with the trends of the times, his honed political skills and tactics, and his respect for with a tendency towards greater social diversity — and the way he brings all these elements together — he has surpassed his predecessors,” said Xiao Gongqin, a historian in Shanghai. , who recalled meeting Mr. Jiang in 1987, said.
Mr. Xi, in his eulogy, sought to praise Jiang’s achievements without letting them downplay his own.
Party leaders remember that in 1989, student protesters organized crowds to mourn the sudden death of Hu Yaobang, a ousted general secretary, whom protesters allege were treated unfairly by Deng Xiaoping and other elders.
Mr. Xi seems determined not to allow anyone to suspect that he has disrespected Jiang, but he also sees Jiang as the forerunner of many of Mr. threats from abroad and at home.
In the early 1990s, “world socialism suffered serious setbacks, and some Western countries imposed so-called ‘sanctions’ on China,” said Xi. speak. Mr. Jiang, he continued, has tried to stabilize the economy while strengthening ideological discipline, and “resolutely defend our country’s independence, dignity, security and stability.”
Mr. Xi also praised Jiang’s resignation from his last major post in 2004, after 15 years as central leader, saying the move showed the late president’s “wise foresight”.
But Mr. Xi, 69, is unlikely to follow Jiang’s example. After a decade in power, he has begun his third five-year term as party leader and there is no likely successor waiting in the wings, implying that he could stay at least a year. another decade.
Bronze Joy contribution report.
