China said farewell Tuesday to former President Jiang Zeming at a state funeral held at the Great Hall of the People, located in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, where attendees paid a three-minute silent tribute at the start of the meeting.
Senior officials of the Chinese Communist Party met to say a final farewell to Zeming at a time when the government is facing strong protests registered in various parts of the country precisely against the government’s ‘zero COVID’ policy.
With the funeral – in which the current president of China, Xi Jinping, delivered a speech in tribute to Zeming – the week of national mourning comes to an end, as reported by Xinhua.
The former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who died Wednesday at age 96 of leukemia, will be buried on December 6 after his coffin was transferred Thursday from the city of Shanghai to Beijing, the capital, where he was received by senior government officials, including President Xi Jinping.
Zemin was general secretary of the Communist Party from 1989 to 2002 and president of the country from 1993 to 2003. He was also responsible for introducing the concept of a «socialist market economy» during a party congress in 1992 and for overseeing the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong and Macau from the United Kingdom and Portugal in 1997 and 1999, respectively.
