Most Westerners know about Jiang Zemin through Robert Lawrence Kuhn’s biography “Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin.” Now that Jiang is gone, it’s time to evaluate his legacy to see how he changed China.
Jiang ruled China for 13 years from 1989 to 2002, including 11 years as the paramount leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the state, and the military. To keep the new leadership under his control after his retirement from the Party and the state, he extended his position as the chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the head of the Party’s military, for two more years. After that, Jiang oversaw Hu Jintao’s ruling from behind the scenes for another eight years. In this sense, he is the second longest ruler in communist China, only after Mao Zedong, the regime’s first leader….