Analysis: Jiang Zemin was almost fired before embarking on market reforms

Katsuji Nakazawa is a Tokyo-based senior staff and editorial writer at Nikkei. He spent seven years in China as a correspondent and later as China bureau chief. He was the 2014 recipient of the Vaughn-Ueda International Journalist prize.

Ten years ago, a reliable Chinese source revealed a little-known secret about former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, who died last week at the age of 96.