Jiang Zemin, now 78 years old, has stepped down from his last remaining
official post, Chairman of the Central Military Commission. This marks the
end of the Jiang Zemin era in modern Chinese politics. I remarked on the
beginning of that era in a review for NRODT:
“It is clear from the Tiananmen Papers that Jiang Zemin, the current
President of China and General Secretary of the Communist Party, owes his
positions not to any constitutional procedure, but to a voice vote taken on
May 27 1989 by the ‘eight elders’, a cabal of senior party leaders led by
Deng Xiaoping. You will search China’s constitution in vain for any
reference to this body, yet they made all the key decisions leading up to
the June 4th massacre.”
I think the invaluable Pan Hu is going to do a full piece for NRO on Jiang.
I’d just like to record my own “Good riddance!” to this faceless, colorless
Party hack whose only positive achievement was to keep out of the way while
his countrymen engaged in rational economic activity. His negative
achievements, which were numerous, will be fully covered by Pan’s
forthcoming article.