Former Chinese president Jiang Zemin has died aged 96

Jiang led the country for a decade of rapid economic growth after the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989. He died at the age of 96, Chinese state media reported.

Jiang Zemin, pictured in September 1991, has died at the age of 96, Chinese state media reports. Source: AAP / Mary Evans/Allstar/Richard Maw

Key Points

• The former Chinese president died at the age of 96 of leukaemia and multiple organ failure, according to state media.
• Jiang was plucked from obscurity to head China's ruling Communist Party after the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989.
• He was known for breaking the country out of its subsequent diplomatic isolation and overseeing an economic boom.

Former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, who led the country for a decade of rapid economic growth after the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989, died on Wednesday at the age of 96, Chinese state media reported.

Jiang died in his home city of Shanghai just after noon on Wednesday (local time) of leukaemia and multiple organ failure, Xinhua news agency said, publishing a letter to the Chinese people by the ruling Communist Party, parliament, cabinet and the military.

"Comrade Jiang Zemin's death is an incalculable loss to our Party and our military and our people of all ethnic groups," the letter read, saying its announcement was with "profound grief".

Jiang's death comes at a tumultuous time in China, where authorities are grappling with rare widespread street protests among residents fed up with heavy-handed COVID-19 curbs nearly three years into the pandemic.

The zero-COVID policy is a hallmark or President Xi Jinping, who recently secured a third leadership term that cements his place as China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong and has taken China in an increasingly authoritarian direction since replacing Jiang's immediate successor, Hu Jintao.

China is also in the midst of a sharp economic slowdown exacerbated by zero-COVID.

'An era is over'

Numerous users of China's Twitter-like Weibo platform described the death of Jiang, who remained influential after finally retiring in 2004, as the end of an era.

"I'm very sad, not only for his departure, but also because I really feel that an era is over," a Henan province-based user wrote.

"As if what has happened wasn't enough, 2022 tells people in a more brutal way that an era is over," a Beijing Weibo user posted.

The online pages of state media sites including People's Daily and Xinhua turned to black and white in mourning.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) gestures as he talks with late former president Jiang Zemin (R) at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in October 2017. Source: AAP / WU HONG/EPA

Wednesday's letter described "our beloved Comrade Jiang Zemin" as an outstanding leader of high prestige, a great Marxist, statesman, military strategist and diplomat and a long-tested communist fighter.

Jiang was plucked from obscurity to head China's ruling Communist Party after the Tiananmen crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1989, but broke the country out of its subsequent diplomatic isolation, mending fences with the United States and overseeing an unprecedented economic boom.

He served as president from 1993 to 2003 but held China's top job, as head of the ruling Communist Party, from 1989 and handed over that role to Hu in 2002. He only gave up the position as head of the military in 2004, which he also assumed in 1989.