BEIJING — China is launching a large-scale commemoration for the 100th anniversary of the birth of former President Jiang Zemin, holding a memorial gathering and airing a documentary. The gesture stands in contrast to the sweeping purge, after President Xi Jinping took power, of members of the "Shanghai clique," the political faction Jiang led. Analysts say the move is intended to reassess Jiang's historical contributions while emphasizing the current leadership's authority and calming unease within the party stirred by a string of high-level downfalls.
A rare 100th-anniversary commemoration, with Xi to speak in person
According to Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao on the 13th, Chinese authorities plan to hold a large commemoration at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on the 17th, the 100th anniversary of Jiang's birth. Thousands of figures from various sectors are expected to attend, and Xi is reported to be delivering a speech in person. It is an unusually high level of honor, given that China has typically held a symposium to mark the 100th anniversary of a former top leader's birth since the founding of the country. Jiang is expected to become the seventh former leader to be honored with a 100th-anniversary commemoration, following Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun.
State media also moved early to set a commemorative mood. Since the 11th, China Central Television (CCTV) has been airing two episodes a day of "Jiang Zemin," a 12-part documentary chronicling his life. An official seminar on Jiang's life and thought will also be held. Cai Qi, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and ranked fifth in the Communist Party, is scheduled to attend the opening ceremony and deliver a speech. Last month, authorities also designated Jiang's former home in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, his hometown, as one of 77 new national patriotic-education demonstration bases.
Born on August 17, 1926, in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, Jiang rose to become general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 1989 and led the party for 13 years. Even after stepping down as general secretary in 2002, he retained the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission until 2004. After serving as Shanghai's mayor and party secretary before moving onto the central political stage, the officials who had worked with him in Shanghai went on to occupy key central posts in large numbers, establishing the so-called "Shanghai clique" as a leading political faction within the Chinese Communist Party. Jiang died in Shanghai on November 30, 2022, at the age of 96.
Despite the sweeping purge of the Shanghai clique, its founder is elevated again to unite party sentiment
What draws attention is that the Shanghai clique, which had been Jiang's political base, was effectively dismantled after Xi took power. Immediately after coming to power in 2012, Xi pushed a "war on corruption" and successively brought down core party, government and military figures who had been seen as close to Jiang.
Beginning in 2014, his second year in power, figures symbolizing the downfall of the Shanghai clique and the Jiang Zemin line came under investigation one after another. That year, Xu Caihou, a former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission who had risen to become a military heavyweight during Jiang's era, was expelled from the party on corruption charges, and an investigation into Zhou Yongkang, a former secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission who had even served on the Politburo Standing Committee, the top leadership body, was formally announced. Zhou was sentenced to life in prison the following year. Guo Boxiong, another military power broker and former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, was also brought down in 2015 and sentenced to life in prison in 2016. All three were classified as close to Jiang, and their downfalls were seen as events symbolizing the decline of the Shanghai clique in the Xi Jinping era.
Later, in September 2022, as Xi was heading toward a third term, six people, including Sun Lijun, a representative figure of the Jiang Zemin line and a former deputy public security minister, were handed heavy sentences over three consecutive days, including suspended death sentences and life imprisonment. After attending the 70th-anniversary celebration of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 2019, Jiang did not appear at major public events for about three years until his death, and some analysts suggested that, beyond his advanced age and declining health, dissatisfaction with Xi was a cause.
Even so, the interpretation is that the Chinese leadership is commemorating Jiang's 100th anniversary at the highest level because it is separating the political purge of the Shanghai clique from the historical assessment of a former top leader. The approach incorporates Jiang's own tenure and contributions into the Chinese Communist Party's official history while removing the influence of the political force that had formed around him.
Kou Chien-wen, a distinguished professor in the department of political science and the Institute of East Asian Studies at National Chengchi University in Taiwan, cited the precedent of then-general secretary Hu Jintao, who in his 2004 speech marking the 100th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping's birth assessed Deng's contributions while reaffirming his own governing philosophy. Commemorations for former leaders are "not only about mourning the past but also about looking to the future," he said, adding that they serve "to affirm a former leader's contributions while consolidating the position of the current leader."
There is also a precedent in which such a commemoration sent a political message tied to the actual power structure. In August 2004, at the 100th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping's birth, there was disagreement within the Chinese leadership over whether Jiang would continue to hold the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission. In his commemorative speech, Hu emphasized that Deng had long argued for abolishing lifetime tenure for leading cadres and had put it into practice himself. A month later, Jiang stepped down from the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission.
There is also an assessment that the aim is to steady a party mood unsettled by a recent series of high-level downfalls. Kou said party sentiment is wavering as senior cadres and military generals have been brought down in large numbers since the 20th Party Congress, and analyzed that "commemorating Jiang Zemin at a high level in such a period demonstrates the need to carry on history, while highlighting the current leadership's governing philosophy for the party and state and thus playing a part in stabilizing party sentiment."
