Jiang Zemin, Leader Who Guided China Into Global Market, Dies at 96 (nytimes.com) 49
Jiang Zemin, the Shanghai Communist kingpin who was handpicked to lead China after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and presided over a decade of meteoric economic growth, died on Wednesday. He was 96. From a report: A Communist Party announcement issued by Chinese state media said he died in Shanghai of leukemia and multiple organ failure. His death and the memorial ceremonies to follow come at a delicate moment in China, where the ruling party is confronting a wave of widespread protests against its pandemic controls, a nationwide surge of political opposition unseen since the Tiananmen movement of Mr. Jiang's time.
Mr. Jiang was president of China for a decade from 1993. In the eyes of many foreign politicians, Mr. Jiang was the garrulous, disarming exception to the mold of stiff, unsmiling Chinese leaders. He was the Communist who would quote Lincoln, proclaim his love for Hollywood films and burst into songs like "Love Me Tender." Less enthralled Chinese called him a "flowerpot," likening him to a frivolous ornament, and mocking his quirky vanities. In his later years young fans celebrated him, tongue-in-cheek, with the nickname "toad." But Mr. Jiang's unexpected rise and quirks led others to underestimate him, and over 13 years as Communist Party general secretary he matured into a wily politician who vanquished a succession of rivals. Mr. Jiang's stewardship of the capitalist transformation that had begun under Deng Xiaoping was one of his signal accomplishments. He also amassed political influence that endured long past his formal retirement, giving him a big say behind the scenes in picking the current president, Xi Jinping.
Mr. Jiang was president of China for a decade from 1993. In the eyes of many foreign politicians, Mr. Jiang was the garrulous, disarming exception to the mold of stiff, unsmiling Chinese leaders. He was the Communist who would quote Lincoln, proclaim his love for Hollywood films and burst into songs like "Love Me Tender." Less enthralled Chinese called him a "flowerpot," likening him to a frivolous ornament, and mocking his quirky vanities. In his later years young fans celebrated him, tongue-in-cheek, with the nickname "toad." But Mr. Jiang's unexpected rise and quirks led others to underestimate him, and over 13 years as Communist Party general secretary he matured into a wily politician who vanquished a succession of rivals. Mr. Jiang's stewardship of the capitalist transformation that had begun under Deng Xiaoping was one of his signal accomplishments. He also amassed political influence that endured long past his formal retirement, giving him a big say behind the scenes in picking the current president, Xi Jinping.
Jiang was much better than Xi (Score:5, Informative)
Jiang Zemin steered China in the right direction, embracing globalization, bringing prosperity to hundreds of millions of his people, and avoiding conflict with the West. Hu Jintao was his protege and mostly kept the same successful policies.
With Xi Jinping, things have gone off the rails. Xi has expressed nostalgia for old-style Maoism, crippled China's tech companies, funneled money to SOEs, and stoked pointless conflict with Japan, India, and the West. Oh, and he also had himself declared president-for-life.
Re: Jiang was much better than Xi (Score:2, Funny)
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Xi is just your standard issue not that bright psychopathic ideologue just like many other dictators around the world. All he cares about is power, not the people and since hes not smart enough to bring the people with him by improving lives like Zemin was he uses oppression and violence instead.
Unfortunately another dictator trait he shares is the inability to lose face - hence the continuous moronic covid restrictions that are killing the economy and in many cases people.
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Unfortunately another dictator trait he shares is the inability to lose face - hence the continuous moronic covid restrictions that are killing the economy and in many cases people.
Lose face?
A planet is staring at China as the origin of a global pandemic that the human race has not endured for over 100 years.
One country on the planet (ironically enough, the source) thinks that ZERO COVID is the answer and doesn't cause additional harm, even in the face of massive death. That same country assumes the rest of a planet actually sees their COVID death toll as factual and accurate.
The one who is so worried about losing face, has lost so much face that he's unrecognizable as a human anymo
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Part of human nature is filtering out evidence that goes against our beliefs and plans. We all do it to some extent but someone like Xi does it in spades.
Difference between China and the US (Score:2)
The US also has its share of politicians afraid to lose face and willing to embrace falsehoods and lies that are convenient. The strength of the US system is that Trump was forced out of office and likely will start losing influence within his own party going forward. In China, the strongman is emperor for life as long as he doesn't lose the will to impose death and suffering.
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The problem with Xi is that he has a "vision". People with a "vision" are usually disconnected from reality and are capable of committing the worst crimes in pursuit of that "vision". See, Putin for another specimen of that kind of psycho. The problem, is of course, that China never managed to put real checks & balances in place, hence this fuckup was able to make himself emperor for life. That never goes well. Xi keeps messing things up because he is unable to see reality and wants something for his co
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Xi is just like his name sake, Winnie, getting his head stuck in the tree going for the honey. Wants what he wants and too dumb to pull his head out.
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Checks and balances?
They have a long list of priorities to acheive before even thinking about that, such as becoming a democracy
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Actually, that is inaccurate. Checks and balances are not tied to democracy, even if they are mostly used there. China had measures in place to prevent the raise of another emperor after Mao and the aftermath of that, exactly to prevent somebody like Xi from setting themselves up as ruler for life. These measures failed.
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are you really surprised that these measures failed, given that it is not a democracy?
The problem is not that Xi is or is not ruler for life. I couldn't care less whether he is succeed every 10 years by another anti-democratic clone of himself. The problem is that there is no freedom in China. Even Xi himself went through a work camp when he was young, after his father was jailed for not having the correct ideas. He had better fortune than his sister, who committed suicide.
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German leaders at least have the smarts and integrity to recognize that Hitler happened.
That is not a good comparison. The people running Germany today are the political heirs of those who opposed Hitler.
Likewise, China's leaders have no problem criticizing the Cultural Revolution since they are the political heirs of Deng Xiaoping, who opposed the Cultural Revolution and was one of its victims.
But the Tiananmen Square massacre happened on their watch, so it is difficult to deflect criticism. Denialism is easier.
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But the Tiananmen Square massacre happened on their watch, so it is difficult to deflect criticism. Denialism is easier.
It was the lack of denialism that made my point about Hitler. Not agreeing with the worst of your history, and denying it ever existed, are worlds apart. And the world sees easier "leaders" as such.
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China is not now and has never been a communist country. China is a fascist dictatorship.
Mao might have thought he was attempting communism at the beginning, but China was in no way ready for communism, it wasn't sufficiently industrialized to begin with. And Mao became a cult of personality dictator VERY quickly after gaining power, his anti-intellectualism pushed China even further from being able to achieve communism.
Jiang Zemin wasn't a communist either. He pushed China toward its current fascist era
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Re: Jiang was much better than Xi (Score:1)
Heâ(TM)s also the guy that ordered his military to kill thousands of protestors and roll over students with tanks.
He was your average bureaucrat dictator which you can find as required at the top of every communist government, ruthless, inhumane, self-enriching.
Xi will soon roll over his people with tanks too, we should be calling for the violent deposition of every dictator government, from Iran and China to the US and Canada.
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Heâ(TM)s also the guy that ordered his military to kill thousands of protestors and roll over students with tanks.
No, that was Li Peng [wikipedia.org].
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Jiang was much better than Xi
That's not saying much.
Jiang Zemin steered China in the right direction, embracing globalization, bringing prosperity to hundreds of millions of his people,
It was great for China. Not so great for the West's economies that outsourced all those jobs and created a social and economic crisis for the working class that's still raw, not to mention endangering their security and industrial bases.
and avoiding conflict with the West.
That's news to the EP-3E crew that was forced down at Hainan Island [slashdot.org], taken captive and interrogated, had their aircraft seized, disassembled, and the intelligence gear stolen by the Chinese government, all while making the United States dance a humilia
Handpicked (Score:3)
... who was handpicked to lead China ...
As if leaders are picked by industrial robots in other parts of the world.
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They're usually elected. Jiang was selected. It's the difference between many, many hands and a number that might be just one.
Jiang started with very few string supporters within the CCP, and was initially viewed as a short-term compromise. He was able to stay much longer than expected.
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Jiang started with very few strong supporters within the CCP, and was initially viewed as a short-term compromise.
Yes, Jiang was initially seen as weak. But he had previously been mayor of Shanghai and brought the Shanghai Clique [wikipedia.org] with him to Beijing. Their global focus brought them much success, and that success carried Jiang to a 2nd term and then to a hand-picked successor who continued his policies.
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Well, in the West, they are hand picked by corporations and then you can choose which corporate stooge you despise the least.
Reminds me of the rest of our economy. You can choose between two or three options, but you usually can't get what you want.
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Well, in the West, they are hand picked by corporations and then you can choose which corporate stooge you despise the least.
I wish! If that were the case, we would not have had the Donald.
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That one was sponsored by cartoonists and comedy news channels.
When you think about it, it's obvious.
Re: Handpicked (Score:2)
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Tally ballots. Not votes. There is an important and subtle distinction.
Ran out of political organ donors? (Score:1)
How could a CCP leader die of organ failure?
Did they already harvest every Falun Gong, Uighur and anti-communist protester's organs or more likely was he out of favor and a threat to Pooh Bear Xi?
More likely he was just out of favor. There's always more people they can grab from their homes or off the streets (especially this week) if the ghoulish CCP leadership needed more bodies.
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Hey Einstein, he was 96 yrs. old. I think his organs gave all they had to give.
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And not just his organs...
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96 year old with own organs? Dead.
Ghoulish CCP with Falun Gong organs? Insufficient data to say how long one can live and how many organ replacement surgeries are survivable.
Genius, indeed. You = entirely missed the point.
They go down (Score:2)
That's not how meteors work.
The wrong leader of China died (Score:2)
That's all there is to be said.
But then again, when has it never been that way?
Sad news ... Jiang Zemin, dead at 96. (Score:1)
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The 50 centers are on a roll today.
Mod this down too.
China's future? (Score:1)
His death could have come at a better time.
Learning from Russias mistakes (Score:3)
It seems China learned from Russia's mistakes; but the lesson they learned was cynical.
Russia lost its sphere of influence, allowed political freedom along with economic freedom, and got chaos before ultimately returning to authoritarian rule. Now Putin is trying to build it all back badly; but of course it wasn't evident at the time of Zemin. They only saw the chaos and said "No". IMHO, that's why we ended up with the current form of government in China. They reasoned that economic freedom was OK if they were going to survive, but decided political freedom would turn them in to Russia, with a collapsing ruble and oligarchs running off with state owned enterprises, etc. The result is Communist Brand Fascism (TM), and I'm not sure if we've seen anything like it elsewhere. They're slowly expanding their territory, they've made Xi president for life, they're grinding up anybody who stands in the way of massive industrial projects like the Three Gorges Dam and any random rail line that happens to go through your house. They became the world's factory, and being China's neighbor is quite nerve wracking. They're everything Putin wishes Russia was. They learned from Russia's mistakes--but did they learn from all the other empires mistakes? There's always a high water mark for empire. There's always a point where the expansion turns in to maintenance, and maintenance doesn't provide a return on capital. Instead, the empire becomes a drain on resources, the barbarians smell blood and it collapses. Arguably the USA has reached that point already; but China is giving us a run for our money. Fascist communism seems new. Maybe a 2nd tier empire taking the heat off the 1st tier empire is novel also. If it plays out like that, we'll have to thank them.
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Indeed, China has grown remarkably economically, militarily, technologically, and in international stature over the last 2-3 decades. However, all this was with the intentional financial and economic support from the West and East Asia. That economic support is being pulled out quickly. Taiwan was a huge funnel of businessmen and investment money, but those businessmen now realize how shaky their possessions are in China. The US and the West are not only stopping economic support but actively working ag