Chinese President Xi Jinping. [Reuters]
Chinese President Xi Jinping. [Reuters]

Chinese President Xi Jinping praised former leader Jiang Zemin for his handling of the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, saying Jiang "resolutely supported and carried out the correct policy decisions of the party's Central Committee."

Xi made the remarks Monday in a speech at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, at a ceremony marking the centenary of Jiang's birth.

The event made Jiang the seventh Chinese leader to receive a centenary commemoration, following Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun.

Xi did not refer to the Tiananmen protests by name, instead describing them as "a serious political storm that occurred in China during the spring-summer transition of 1989."

"During the critical test of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the international situation was changing rapidly and a serious political storm erupted at home, Jiang steadfastly kept economic development at the center," Xi said.

Jiang became general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee in June 1989, at the time of the Tiananmen crackdown. He is credited with laying the groundwork for China's economic rise by advancing market reforms and opening the country to the outside world in the 1990s, and by steering China's accession to the World Trade Organization.

Xi also praised Jiang for overseeing the handover of Hong Kong and Macao and for his opposition to Taiwan independence.

Xi said Jiang "led the smooth return of Hong Kong and Macao" and pushed both sides of the Taiwan Strait to reach the "1992 Consensus" — an agreement under which both sides acknowledged the "one China" principle while reserving the right to use their own names for it.

Xi added that Jiang "vigorously pursued the major struggle against separatism and opposition to 'Taiwan independence,'" and "put forward a series of diplomatic and international strategic ideas, promoting the correct development of world multipolarity and economic globalization."

Among the retired Chinese leaders who attended the ceremony were Wen Jiabao and Wang Qishan. Former President Hu Jintao was not present, Hong Kong newspaper Sing Tao Daily said.


joze@heraldcorp.com