Students at Hong Kong’s Scientia High School watch a memorial service for late Chinese leader Jiang Zemin © Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images
Chinese state media emphasized Jiang Zemin’s credentials as a Marxist “revolutionary” when a state memorial began for the former leader, and official bodies struck a delicate balance in remembering one of the country’s most powerful people in a memorial service Tuesday.
“Comrade Jiang Zemin was an outstanding leader…he was a great Marxist, revolutionary of the proletariat, politician, militarist, diplomat and a well-proven communist soldier,” according to a front-page editorial in the People’s Daily, the official spokesman of the party
China faces a delicate task in honoring Jiang without creating too stark a contrast with current President Xi Jinping, who has steadily centralized power, even securing an unprecedented third term in in October
“The party, the army and the people … feel boundless pain … We love and cherish Comrade Jiang because he gave his life and spirit for the Chinese people,” Xi said at the event memorial Tuesday morning.
Jiang’s body was cremated at Beijing’s Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery on Monday morning, having been flown from Shanghai. Xi and other senior leaders paid their last respects to Jiang at a ceremony that day.
On Tuesday, China honored the former leader with a memorial service live from Beijing’s Great Hall of the People and three minutes of silence, announced in some cities, including Shanghai, where Jiang was party secretary, to the wail of sirens .
The memorial events were also notable for the presence of Hu Jintao, Xi’s predecessor as leader, who was unceremoniously led out of the Great Hall of the People in front of party members and world media at China’s party congress in in October Hu’s ouster had led to speculation that he was being kicked out of the party.