Jiang Zemin laid to rest as unrest smoulders in China

Since the 1989 Tiananmen Square movement was put down brutally for seeking political reform, there have been no protests in China that challenged a national policy.

But last week, hundreds of people poured into the streets in cities and university campuses across China to protest against the restrictions of the pandemic measures.

Significantly, they were directed against the zero-Covid policy that Xi Jinping has insisted upon. The protests pose the biggest challenge to the Chinese premier since his endorsement by the party for a record third term in power.

The protests coincided with the news of Jiang Zemin’s death. The former General Secretary of the Communist Party died at the age of 96 of leukaemia in Shanghai — one of the main centres of the protests.

Jiang was eulogised as a leader who not only calmed the nation in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre but also presided over a decade of breakneck economic growth and prosperity. He also managed to build cordial relations with the United States.

When he retired in 2002, Jiang had managed to make China join the World Trade Organisation (WTO), won the right to stage the 2008 summer Olympics, and reclaimed sovereignty over Hong Kong and Macau while breaking China’s international isolation after Tiananmen.

Protesters of the zero-Covid policy found a contrast in the two situations — the one that Jiang Zemin had presided over and the current state of affairs under Xi Jinping.

Apart from the anger over the Covid restrictions, the rising frustration was also due to China’s declining economy, strained relations with the US, growing censorship of free speech, and lack of freedom of movement.

Hours after the announcement of Jiang’s death, mourners poured in to place bouquets outside his childhood home in the city of Yangzhou.

A night vigil was also organised in Shanghai, but it was thwarted by heavy security deployment.

At the Great Hall of the People, Xi Jinping called on the nation to “turn grief into strength” while paying homage to his former boss.

He said, “The entire party, the entire army, and the people of all ethnic groups in the country must unite more closely around the party’s central leadership” to take the country to greater heights.

Since the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, funerals of popular leaders are seen as potential trouble by the Chinese leadership.

In 1989, thousands of young Chinese poured into Beijing’s streets to mourn the death of pro-reform General Secretary of the Communist Party Hu Yaobang. That soon led to clashes with the authorities.

The large-scale demonstrations that followed in the Chinese capital and other major cities were finally brought under control after the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was deployed, leading to a large number of deaths and arrests of protesters.

As the protests of the zero-Covid policy began to morph into popular mourning for Jiang Zemin, the Communist Party decided to step in to take control of organising the memorials for the departed leader.

Interestingly, Jiang had sided with those in the party who wanted the imposition of martial law to deal with the rising Tiananmen protests.

However, soon after the Tiananmen protests, he managed to calm the situation and put the Chinese economy back on track with rapid growth.

But Jiang was also ruthless in dealing with internal dissent and brutally cracked down on the Falun Gong spiritual cult members after they peacefully demonstrated outside his Beijing office in 1999.

However, US President Bill Clinton was impressed when he met Jiang. “He can imagine a future that is different from the present,” the US President had remarked.

But Clinton was totally off the mark. When members of the China Democracy Party tried to organise politically, Jiang came down heavily and put them in prison for up to 15 years.

Many in India will remember Jiang Zemin as the leader, who, along with Clinton, had demanded that India roll back its nuclear weapons and sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) when it conducted the nuclear tests in May 1998.

But after more than three decades Jiang is remembered fondly and in a warm glow by the young protesters of China who contrast his ways with Xi Jinping’s Covid restrictions.

Nonetheless, despite the splash, the protests managed to create within China and beyond in recent days, most observers do not see it turning into a bigger challenge questioning Xi Jinping’s rule. The protests were largely against the Covid restrictions that hampered their free movement and disrupted normal life for months, and are unlikely to turn into something bigger.

China has already begun to roll back many restrictions, though it has not yet announced the end of its zero-Covid policy.

The biggest test of how China deals with the evolving situation will be known during the Spring festival holidays in January.

Despite a sudden increase in the number of Covid-infected people, if China manages to control the situation without getting overwhelmed, it could well be confident enough to live with the virus, like the rest of the world.