Jiang Zemin's death is prompting Chinese to question Xi's path

Economic troubles also raise doubts about departures from 'reform and opening'

Willy Lam

December 5, 2022 17:00 JST

Jiang Zemin smiles at Bill Clinton during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in 1997: The Chinese president was criticized by party cadres as pro-American. © Reuters

Willy Lam is an adjunct professor of history at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation think tank in Washington. He is also author of the book "The Era of Jiang Zemin."

The high point of the career of Jiang Zemin, the former Chinese president who died last week at the age of 96, was a recitation of the key clause in the Gettysburg Address made by late U.S. President Abraham Lincoln: "Of the people, by the people, for the people."