Jiang Zemin (1926– )

Chinese communist politician, leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) 1989–2002 and state president 1993–2003. He succeeded Zhao Ziyang as Communist Party leader after the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, and during the next decade he steered a middle course of market-centred economic reform while maintaining the CCP's monopoly of political power. Chinese exports were heavily promoted and foreign investment was attracted, leading to significant economic growth but also growing corruption. He stepped down from his final position of power, chairman of the central military commission, overseeing the armed forces, in 2004.

Born in Yangzhou, in Jiangsu province, the son-in-law of Li Xiannian and a graduate in engineering, Jiang served in the Moscow embassy 1950–56, and during the 1960s and 70s held posts in China's heavy- and power-industry ministries. In 1985 he became mayor of Shanghai and joined the Communist Party's politburo in 1987. During the 1989 student protests, he secured a peaceful end to the demonstrations in Shanghai and was rewarded by being appointed Communist Party leader. He succeeded his patron Deng Xiaoping as head of the influential central military commission in 1990 and replaced Yang Shangkun as state president in 1993.

A conciliatory figure, Jiang sought to curb the widening income differences in China as economic growth gathered pace in the coastal cities, and he promoted the idea of ‘spiritual civilization’, involving national pride and high moral standards. The death of ‘paramount leader’ Deng Xiaoping in 1997 left Jiang as ‘first among equals’ within a collective leadership. Jiang's campaign against official corruption saw the dismissal, in 1995, of the mayor of Beijing, Chen Xitong.