China: Mr. Jiang Zemin, a former Chinese President who helped his Nation emerge from isolation following the suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, passed away at the age of 96.

Mr. Jiang died from leukaemia and multiple organ failure in Shanghai. The former President was unexpectedly chosen to lead a split Communist party after the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. Under his leadership, China’s market-oriented reforms recovered, Hong Kong gained its independence from the British in 1997, and Beijing joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

Mr. Jiang’s death comes at a tumultuous time in China, where authorities are grappling with rare widespread street protests among residents fed up with heavy-handed COVID-19 curbs nearly three years into the pandemic. The leader has supported economic reforms that began a decade of exponential growth in China.

The leader served as President from 1993 to 2003 but held China’s top job, as head of the ruling Communist Party, from 1989 and handed over that role to Mr. Hu in 2002. Mr. Jiang only gave up the position as head of the military in 2004, which he assumed in 1989.

The politician had loaded the Politburo Standing Committee, China’s most powerful leadership body, with his own proteges, many of whom were members of the infamous “Shanghai Gang.”

Mr. Jiang had rarely appeared in public in recent years, the last appearance was at a 2019 military parade in Beijing celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Though former Chinese leaders are often at major political events, Mr. Jiang was not present at the Communist Party congress last month, where Mr. Xi secured a historic third term in power.

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