Chinese dictator Xi Jinping celebrated the life of communist predecessor Jiang Zemin at a ceremony marking the latter’s would-be 100th birthday on Monday, noting that Jiang, as the leader who took over China following the Tiananmen Square massacre, “implemented the correct decisions” to crush anti-communist dissent.
Jiang Zemin was president of China and head of the Communist Party from 1993 to 2003, promoted in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre after serving as mayor of Shanghai. His “achievements” in office include the brutal persecution of pro-democracy dissidents, pioneering live organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners, and the silencing in public of nearly all that remained of religion in China. Jiang was among the most public faces of the Communist Party justifying the slaughter in the aftermath of the June 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, in which the Communist Party violently crushed, in some cases literally, thousands of peaceful, pro-democracy student protesters in Beijing.
“We do not believe that there was any tragedy in Tiananmen Square,” Jiang said in September 1989. “What actually happened was a counterrevolutionary rebellion aimed at opposing the leadership of the Communist Party and overthrowing the socialist system.”
Jiang died in 2022 at the age of 96. Late in life, he earned the nickname “the toad” for his appearance and became the subject of online memes for apparently falling asleep during a speech by Xi in 2017. Nonetheless, Xi made a spectacle of the 100th anniversary of his birthday, organizing a massive event on Monday attended by all members of the Politburo and featuring 40 minutes of Xi’s remarks celebrating the late Communist Party chief. Notably absent was Jiang’s successor as president of China, Hu Jintao, who was purged on live television in October 2022.
International observers noted that the speech included praise for Jiang’s actions in support of the brutal mass killings of the Tiananmen Square massacre and in the ensuring months. The Chinese government’s policy towards the 1989 event is typically to pretend it never happened, censoring it from the internet to prevent its citizens from knowing about it. That has changed under Xi however, as the Chinese Communist Party has changed its stance to not only acknowledging the massacre, but applauding it as a necessary “political vaccine” against pro-freedom ideologies.
While transcripts of Xi’s speech do not suggest he mentioned the Tiananmen Square massacre by name, the do indicate that he hinted at the “political turmoil” of the time and credited Jiang with helping end it through the rampant killing of dissidents.
“Between the spring and summer of 1989, China experienced serious political turmoil. Comrade Jiang Zemin resolutely supported and implemented the correct decisions of the Central Committee, effectively maintaining stability in Shanghai,” Xi was quoted as saying.
The flagship Chinese state news agency Xinhua shared that Xi celebrated Jiang’s “indelible contributions” to communism and described him as a “long-tested communist fighter and an outstanding leader of the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
“Jiang made resolute decisions at key historical junctures and critical moments, and responded calmly to risks and challenges, securing the steady advancement of China’s reform and opening up as well as socialist modernization,” Xinhua summarized Xi as saying, adding that Xi “highlighted Jiang’s extraordinary courage and vision.”
He encouraged communist leaders to “uphold the overall leadership of the Party and the centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee” and “ensure the Party remains the strong leadership core” in the future, presumably regardless of the wishes of the Chinese people, which Xi regularly portrays as indistinguishable from the Chinese Communist Party that represses them.
“During the 13 years [of his leadership], the international situation was complex and volatile, and Jiang led the party leadership in unswervingly upholding the party’s line,” Xi declared, according to the South China Morning Post, urging leaders to share Jiang’s “rock-solid political conviction.”
“Jiang upheld reform and opening up, carried out rectification, engaged in diplomatic struggles, and resolutely safeguarded the country’s independence, dignity, security and stability,” he emphasized.
Reuters noted that the Chinese government has invested heavily in propaganda celebrating Jiang. In addition to the festivities on Monday, the Chinese government produced and aired a 12-part documentary on Jiang’s life.
“The programme recounted how, in 1989, Jiang – who had himself been a student protester in the 1940s – forcibly shut down a reformist Shanghai newspaper,” Reuters shared, “after it called for greater freedom of speech and voiced support for the pro-democracy demonstrations that culminated in the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing.”
Xi also used his address to celebrate Jiang’s economic policies, however, which culminated with China entering the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. Beijing will mark 25 years in the institution in December, which it used to position itself as the world’s most dominant manufacturer and second-largest economy. Jiang made the deal possible through close relationships with American leaders, despite his record of human rights abuses, such as Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Former President Bush served as a top American diplomat in Beijing, which offered him the opportunity to establish relationship with Communist Party officials. Bush and Jiang, once mayor of Shanghai, bonded over golf.
“The mayor of Shanghai during negotiations for the golf course, Jiang Zemin, became a Bush family friend who later became the premier of China,” investigative journalist Peter Schweizer noted in his 2022 book, Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win.
“The father of President [George W.] Bush, Bush Sr., came over to China many, many times and had many meetings with me in the seat you are now occupying,” Jiang once said, following the election of former President George W. Bush. “We believe Bush Sr. will definitely push Bush Jr. to bring U.S.-China relations to a new level.”