Topic: Jiang Zemin

Jiang Zemin (Born on 17 August 1926) is the "Core of the third generation" of Communist Party of China leaders, serving as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002, as President of the People's Republic of China from 1993 to 2003, and as Chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004.

Jiang Zemin came to power following Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, replacing Zhao Ziyang as CPC General Secretary. With the waning influence of Deng Xiaoping and the other members of Eight Elders due to old age, Jiang effectively became the "Paramount Leader" in the 1990s. Under his leadership, China experienced substantial developmental growth with reforms, saw the peaceful return of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom and Macau from Portugal, and improved its relations with the outside world while the Communist Party maintained its tight control over the government. Jiang has been criticized for being too concerned about his personal image at home, and too conciliatory towards Russia and the United States abroad. His contribution to the Marxist doctrine, a list of guiding ideologies by which the CPC rules China, is called the theory of the Three Represents, which has been written into the party and state constitutions.

Jiang was born in the city of Yangzhou, Jiangsu. His ancestral home, a notion important in traditional Chinese society, was the Jiangwan Village (江湾村), Wuyuan County (婺源县) of the old Huizhou (徽州) in northern Jiangxi Province. This was also the hometown of a number of prominent figures in Chinese academic and intellectual establishments. Jiang grew up during the years of Japanese occupation. His uncle, Jiang Shangqing, had died fighting the Japanese in WW2 and was considered to be a national hero. Jiang attended the National Central University (Department of Radio Engineering at Southeast University) in the Japanese-occupied Nanjing before being transferred to JiaoTong University in Shanghai (Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Xi'an Jiaotong University). He graduated there in 1947 with a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. He claimed that he joined the Communist Party of China when he was in college. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Jiang received his training at the Stalin Automobile Works in Moscow in the 1950s. He also had worked for Changchun's First Automobile Works. He eventually got transferred to government services, where he began to rise in prominence and rank, eventually becoming a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Minister of Electronic Industries in 1983. In 1985 he became Mayor of Shanghai, and subsequently the Party Chief of Shanghai.