China is using Jiang Zemin centenary to signal political continuity

The centenary of Jiang Zemin’s birth, marked on August 17 with a memorial in Beijing attended and addressed by President Xi Jinping, was more than an occasion to commemorate a former Chinese leader. It was also an exercise in political history: a moment to locate Jiang, the era he led and the reform legacy associated with him within the broader story of the China" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="7909" data-entity-type="organization">Communist Party of China’s evolution and China’s modernisation.That is what makes the event politically significant. The question is not simply why China is commemorating Jiang so prominently. It is why the leadership has chosen this particular historical moment to reaffirm his place in the country’s political narrative and what that says about how Beijing views the road from reform and opening up to Chinese modernisation today.Xi’s speech placed Jiang squarely within the history of the party, describing him as the core of the party’s third-generation central leadership and as a principal founder of the important notion of the “Three Represents”. It also highlighted Jiang’s contributions to reform and opening up, socialist modernisation and China’s development.