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EARLY YEARS
Jiang Zemin was born into an intellectual family in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, in eastern China. When Jiang was young, his uncle died while fighting for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against Japan. Under Chinese custom, it was believed to be a tragedy to die without a male heir, so Jiang's father allowed him to be adopted by the uncle's family. When the CCP later defeated the Kuomintang to win the Chinese civil war (1945-1949), Jiang benefited from being the legal son of a Communist martyr.
Jiang attended college at Shanghai Jiaotong University, where he participated in CCP-led student movements. He was formally accepted into the party in 1946 and the following year completed his degree in electrical engineering.
Jiang began his career working as a factory engineer and manager. In the mid-1950s he spent a year in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) studying the Soviet automobile industry. After his return to China in 1956 Jiang held technical and managerial posts in heavy-industry factories and research institutes.
RISE TO POWER
Jiang's career shifted from technical administration to government in 1980 when he became vice minister of the national commissions on foreign investment and on imports and exports. He is credited with being a major planner behind the success of China's first Special Economic Zone, Shenzhen, which was established in 1980 to encourage foreign investment. Jiang was named vice minister of the electronics industry in 1982, rising to minister the following year. In 1985 he was appointed mayor of Shanghai. In the meantime, Jiang also rose within the CPP ranks. He was appointed to the CCP's Central Committee in 1982 and to the Politburo (the central policymaking body of the CCP) in 1987.
Jiang's tenure as Shanghai's mayor was successful but not spectacular. In keeping with the national policies of the time, he promoted infrastructure projects, economic development, and foreign investment. He also permitted some political liberalization, but remained within the limits acceptable by the central authorities.
PARTY LEADERSHIP
On June 3 and 4, 1989, hundreds of citizens were killed when Chinese troops were ordered to suppress peaceful prodemocracy demonstrators occupying Beijing's Tiananmen Square . Deng Xiaoping had previously designated Zhao Ziyang, the general secretary of the CCP, as his successor, but Zhao was ousted from his party post for his failure to support the crackdown. Deng brought Jiang Zemin from Shanghai to serve as the new general secretary of the party. Among eligible leaders of his generation, Jiang was seen as a compromise figure, tainted neither by excessive liberalism nor by excessive harshness toward the prodemocracy demonstrators in his own city of Shanghai.
In 1989 Jiang succeeded Deng as chairman of the Central Military Commission, the organization that commands the national military. After being designated by Deng as the "core of the leadership of the third generation" (meaning the third generation of leaders after Mao and Deng), he was elected president of China in March 1993. This gave him the top posts in the party, military, and state organs, which are the three systems of power in China.
Jiang rose to supreme power and subsequently consolidated that power partly because of Deng's confidence in him, but also because he had cultivated good relations with the military and with retired party leaders of Deng's generation. Jiang also received support from his colleagues in the party and government. In deference to Deng, Jiang did not articulate any distinctive personal vision before Deng's death in February 1997. He worked well with more conservative Li Peng, premier from 1987 to 1998, and presided over a period of economic growth guided by the chief economic policymaker, Zhu Rongji. At the 15th Chinese Communist Party Congress in September 1997 Jiang maneuvered Qiao Shi, his chief rival, out of power. Jiang and his colleagues patiently guided China's return to international respectability after Tiananmen, a process that culminated in Jiang's October 1997 summit meeting with President Bill Clinton of the United States.
Jiang styles himself a cosmopolitan. He speaks a number of foreign languages, including English and Russian. Jiang is described as liking Chinese and Western music and English and Russian literature, and as being able to read classical Chinese. His decision-making style appears to be deliberate and consensus-oriented.
ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
Under Jiang's leadership China has enjoyed explosive economic growth, booming foreign investment, rising exports, and declining inflation. Jiang's most difficult economic challenge has been the reform of inefficient state-owned enterprises. At the 15th Chinese Communist Party Congress in 1997, he committed the party to the privatization of most of these enterprises, although he retained Deng Xiaoping's slogan of "building socialism with Chinese characteristics." China's economy is a combined form known as "market socialism." The government directs economic activities, but permits some aspects of a free-market economy. It remains unclear which aspect of this economic model Jiang intends to stress now that he is free of Deng's supervision.
FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS
In foreign policy, the Jiang administration has sought to gain entry into the World Trade Organization, discourage Japanese military buildup, improve relations with its powerful neighbors Russia and India, and assert China's position as the representative of developing countries in the United Nations Security Council and elsewhere. Jiang's diplomatic successes include the peaceful transition of Hong Kong from British to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997, and the October 1997 summit meeting with Bill Clinton.
In domestic affairs, Jiang has concentrated on establishing his power base in the military, demoting rivals, and promoting political allies. He has also given attention to restoring ideological discipline among party members and the general population, and to combating corruption. While there has been no concrete evidence that Jiang supports democratic reform, like earlier Communist leaders he often uses democratic rhetoric to defend the CCP's grip on power.
