Jiang Zemin Fast Facts

CNN Editorial Research

Here’s a look at the life of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

Personal

Birth date: August 17, 1926

Birth place: Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China

Birth name: Jiang Zemin

Father: Jiang Shijun

Mother: Wu Yueqing

Marriage: Wang Yeping

Children: Jiang Miankang and Jiang Mianheng

Education: Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Electrical Engineering, 1947

Religion: Members of the Chinese Communist Party are officially atheist.

Other Facts

When an uncle, a Communist partisan, was killed in combat, Jiang’s father gave Jiang to the uncle’s family so they would have a male heir.

Supported the suppression of the student-led pro-democracy protests at Tiananmen Square.

Timeline

1946 – Joins the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

1955-1956 – Trainee with the Stalin Automobile Factory in Moscow.

1971-1979 – Deputy director and later director of the Foreign Affairs Bureau of the First Ministry of Machine-Building Industry.

1981-1982 – Vice minister of the State Foreign Investment Commission.

1982 – Appointed vice minister of Electronics Industry and later in the year elected a member of the CCP Central Committee.

1983 – Promoted to minister of Electronics Industry.

1985-1988 – Mayor of Shanghai.

June 1989 – Appointed general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, succeeding Zhao Ziyang.

November 1989 – Succeeds Deng Xiaoping as chairman of the Central Military Commission.

1993-2003 – President of the People’s Republic of China.

September 1997 – Unveils plan to privatize China’s unprofitable state-owned enterprises.

October 28, 1997 – Meets with US President Bill Clinton at the White House and attends a US-China summit regarding nuclear power technology.

June 28, 1998 – In a live televised debate, discusses human rights with President Clinton in Beijing.

July 16, 2001 – With Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, signs the Treaty on Good-Neighborliness Friendship and Cooperation Between the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China.

December 11, 2001 – China formally joins the World Trade Organization as the 143rd member.

October 2002 – In Jiang’s last visit to the United States as president and head of state, meets with former President George H. W. Bush in Houston and President George W. Bush in Crawford, Texas.

November 2002 – Retires as general secretary of the Chinese Communist party.

March 2003 – Limited to two five-year terms in office, Jiang steps down and Vice President Hu Jintao becomes president of China.

March 2005 – Formally steps down as chairman of the Chinese military, having offered his resignation in a letter in September of 2004.

October 9, 2011 – Appears at a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of China’s 1911 revolution. It is the first time he has been seen in public since rumors of his death spread in July 2011.

December 6, 2011 – The Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority fines Asia Television Limited (ATV) almost $39,000 (HK $300,000) for airing a report in July that suggested Jiang had died.

September 13, 2019 – Marking 70 years of Communist rule, Jiang’s giant portrait is carried down Chang’an Avenue in Beijing following the portraits of Communist leader Mao Zedong and reformist leader Deng Xiaoping, who both served as China’s “core leader” before Jiang.

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