Jiang zemin biography books
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Though it had taken years of policy renovation, consensus building, deft maneuvering, and political infighting, he had surprised the world, transforming his country into an economic superpower. As thousands of Chinese students encircled the U.S. embassy in Beijing, hurling rocks along with their epithets, Jiang castigated the United States for its “deliberate provocations.”
He told Russian president Boris Yeltsin that the NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia were an example of America’s “absolute gun-boat policy” that should “arouse the vigilance of statesmen all over the world.” He then ratcheted up the rhetoric, pronouncing that “the U.S.-led NATO must bear full responsibility for the atrocity, or the Chinese people will not leave the matter at that.” The next day, when meeting with Russian special envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin, Jiang stated that “the Chinese people have expressed their indignation through demonstrations, rallies, statements and forums, showing their passion, will and great patriotic power.” Defiantly he proclaimed, “The great People’s Republic of China will never be bullied, the great Chinese nation will never be humiliated, and the great Chinese people will never be conquered.”
Jiang’s response to September 11 also seemed surprising when compared to his reaction just five months earlier, when a U.S.
Navy EP-3E Aries II surveillance plane, monitoring electronic signals off China’s coast, collided with a Chinese F-8 fighter jet that crashed into the South China Sea, disintegrated, and killed its pilot. He was one of the first world leaders to do so.
“On behalf of the Chinese government and people,” he wrote, “I would like to express sincere sympathy to you, and through you, to the U.S.
Government and people, and condolences to the family members of the victims. Jiang is not pro-American, but he does understand America. While many Americans criticize Jiang for being anti-American, some Chinese derogate him for being pro-American. In the havoc of the season, the position of general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (Party or CPC), the top job in the country, was given to a former engineer known for his loyalty, tact, cultural values, and intellectual interests.
In offering this unusually intimate and comprehensive personal and political biography, Kuhn demonstrates that Jiang Zemin’s life personifies the history of contemporary China, giving invaluable insight into what China is today and will become in the future.
The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin - Hardcover
Excerpt.
NATO announced that the bombs had not actually been off target; the problem was that the target itself was wrong. Jiang Zemin’s China closed its borders with Afghanistan and its longtime friend Pakistan to prevent al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders from using China as an escape route. The government reacted, first by imposing martial law, and then by employing force, and the tragedy that ensued drew international censure.
Without understanding his real beliefs, one might assume that Jiang’s castigations of America were calculating and opportunistic, that he took advantage of these unfortunate accidents to rouse anti-American sentiments. The themes that emerge show why, in context, Jiang Zemin’s statements about the embassy bombing, the airplane collision, and the September 11 attacks were all drawn from the same philosophical well, each consistent with his overarching vision of China and his long-standing feelings about America.
Above all Jiang is a Chinese patriot—and it is important to appreciate what that really means. InThe Man Who Changed China, Kuhn, who was cited by the AsianWall Street Journalfor the “unprecedented access” he was given in the course of writing this book, has produced what the Journal called “probably the closest thing to an authorized biography that’s possible in Communist China.” Here a reader will find a complex and nuanced portrait of China’s senior leader, whose policies continue to exert great influence over the course of his country.
As the world watched, huge masses of student protesters gathered in Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing, China’s capital. Twenty more people were injured. A mild-mannered but patriotic grassroots organizer of protests during the Japanese occupation, Jiang matured into a good-natured technocrat who was, according to the author (host of PBS's series and a former adviser to the Chinese government), without greater political ambition while serving as mayor of Shanghai.
. A portly man with a receding hairline and large spectacles, Jiang Zemin was regarded by nearly everyone as a mere transitional figure, someone to hold the place until a new strongman emerged.
A decade later Jiang Zemin was still in place, stronger than ever with the additional titles of chairman of the Central Military Commission and president of China.
Kuhn shows how Jiang led China through an amazing metamorphosis—from a fretful country destabilized by the turmoil and crackdown in Tiananmen Square into a vibrant nation that became a primary engine of global economic growth. The bombs destroyed the building and killed those three Chinese journalists. But he avoided political pitfalls in his dealings with student protesters in Shanghai in the period leading to the Tiananmen Square massacre—dealings Kuhn tries to portray as firm but not unkind.
32 pages of b&w photos. � Reprinted by permission.