Jiang Zemin, ex-Chinese president who oversaw handover of Hong Kong, is dead
Jiang Zemin, former president of China, has died at the age of 96.
According to the BBC, Chinese state media confirmed that the former leader breathed his last just after noon (local time) on Wednesday.
Zemin rose to the peak of China’s leadership just a few weeks after the infamous 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, where several thousands of unarmed protesting civilians were fired upon by the military.
His immediate assignment was to thaw the country’s relationship with the international community, which had been frozen following the incident in Tiananmen Square.
He thrived and successfully manoeuvred China out of diplomatic isolation and also oversaw the peaceful handover of Hong Kong by the British in 1997.
Zemin has been also credited for opening China opened up on a vast scale and seeing high-speed growth, entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001, and winning the bid to host the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
He was, however, criticised for a heavy-handed crackdown on the religious sect Falun Gong in 1999.
He is survived by his wife, two sons and two grandchildren.
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