Jiang Zemin

Jiang Zemin married Wang Yeping in 1949. The couple has two sons: Jiang Mianheng and Jiang Miankang.

Jiang Zemin was born on August 17, 1926, in Yangzhou, Jiangsu. His ancestral home was in Jiangwan, a Chinese province that was home to several prominent Chinese intellectuals and politicians. Jiang was born at the peak of the Japanese occupation of China, right after the First World War. His uncle, who was also his foster father, was in the Chinese army and was considered a national hero after his death in the Second World War.

Zemin’s father, Jiang Shijun, worked at the publicity department of the Nanking regime, which was a Japanese puppet government. Shijun severed all ties with his family, and following this incident, Zemin’s uncle took him under his custody. After his uncle’s death in the World War, Zemin and the family experienced hard times. His father Shijun was a wealthy man but never came ahead to help.

Zemin enrolled in the electrical engineering program at the ‘National Central University’ in Nanjing and was later transferred to the ‘National Chiao Tung University.’ He finally graduated in 1947 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.

His political aspirations grew while he was in college, and he is said to have become a worker of the ‘CPC’ while he was in college. He received his training at the ‘Stalin Automobile Works’ in Moscow. He frequently switched jobs and eventually acquired a spot on the ‘Central Committee of the Communist Party’ in 1983, as the ‘Minister of Electric Industries.’

In the mid-80s, he was offered the position of the ‘Mayor’ of Shanghai, one of the busiest metropolitan cities in China. His reign was considered to be very weak at that time. His haters believed that although he seemed useful, he was mostly an “empty vessel.”

Jiang Zemin’s foray into national politics happened in 1987, when he acquired a seat in the ‘Politburo’ of the ‘CPC Central Committee.’ However, his place was not earned, as it was a custom to have a seat reserved for the ‘Party Secretary’ of Shanghai. Soon, intense protests broke out in in Tiananmen Square, and the central government did not know the right way to handle the protestors.

The general secretary of the party, Zhao Ziyang, had liberal tendencies. He was not in tune with the principles of the ‘CPC.’ He was sympathetic toward the protestors. This made the party supreme Deng Xiaoping search for a replacement. Jiang had shut down the newspaper ‘World Economic Herald,’ which was a significantly brave step. Deng noticed this, and Jiang, who was serving as the ‘Shanghai Party Secretary’ at that time, was given the position of the general secretary of the ‘CPC.’

Although Jiang was now given the top position in the party’s leadership, he was not given enough power. Over time, he earned the respect of the party’s elders and propagated against the liberalization. He stated that in order for the ‘CPC’ to maintain its hold over the country, modernization and economic reforms needed to be put in place.

1993 was the year of economic reforms in China, as Jiang brought introduced a “socialist market economy,” which was step forward from the existing socialist economy toward a government-regulated capitalist market economy. With his effective policies, he earned the confidence of Deng and diminished the ‘Central Advisory Committee.’ In 1993, he contested the ‘Presidency’ elections.

In March 1993, he was named the fifth president of the ‘Republic of China.’ In the 90s, following the economic reforms, the country faced many issues related to corruption and unequal distribution of wealth. It further gave rise to a growing rate of unemployment in the country. The migration of people from rural areas to urban areas was taking place in great numbers, and the entire country was on the verge of collapsing.