Chinese state media emphasised Jiang Zemin’s credentials as a Marxist “revolutionary” as a state memorial for the former leader began and official organs struck a delicate balance in remembering one of the country’s most powerful individuals at a memorial service.
“Comrade Jiang Zemin was an outstanding leader … he was a great Marxist, proletariat revolutionary, politician, militarist, diplomat and well-tested communist soldier,” read a front-page editorial on Tuesday in the People’s Daily, the Communist party’s official mouthpiece.
China faces a delicate task in honouring Jiang without drawing too obvious a contrast with current president Xi Jinping, who has steadily centralised power, including by securing an unprecedented third term in October.
“The party, the military and the people . . . feel limitless sorrow . . . We love and esteem comrade Jiang because he…
