Jiang Zemin’s Political Legacy: Crimes and Corruption

Former Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on Oct. 24, 2017. Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

News Analysis

Jiang Zemin, the former leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), died of illness in Shanghai on Nov. 30, 2022, at the age of 96, according to an official announcement. Jiang wielded considerable control of China for more than 20 years, leaving behind a lasting political legacy characterized by crimes and corruption.

Alleged Spy for Japan and Soviet Union

According to historical records and research by the late Chinese civil scholar and historian Lyu Jiaping, not only was Jiang’s father a traitor during the Japanese occupation of China in World War II, but Jiang himself was also a spy for Japanese imperial military intelligence.

Jiang Shijun, Jiang’s biological father, joined the “Peace Salvation Congress” organized by the Japanese occupation force and its Chinese collaborators in 1938. After the fall of Nanjing, he worked for the collaborators’ “Nanjing Temporary Maintenance Association” and for the Japanese.

Relying on his father’s connections, Jiang enrolled in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Central University’s Engineering College in Nanjing. During that time, he joined the college’s youth cadre training class established by a Japanese spy chief in China, and was trained as a spy to monitor other Chinese students, according to Lyu.

Jiang went to the Moscow Stalin Automobile Factory in the Soviet Union for an internship from 1955 to 1956. The Soviet National Security Council (KGB) discovered Jiang’s history as a traitor and developed him into a KGB spy of its Far East Bureau, according to the historian. After returning to China, Jiang maintained a connection with the KGB and became a Soviet spy hidden in the CCP. In order to cover up this dark history, Jiang signed a secret treaty with Russia, selling out Chinese territories.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin (L) and Chinese leader Jiang Zemin toast each other after the signing of border agreements between the two countries, in Beijing on Dec. 9, 1999. AFP via Getty Images

In December 1999, Jiang and the visiting Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the “Protocol on the Narrative Protocol between the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of the Russian Federation on the East and West Sections of the Sino-Russian Boundary” in Beijing. He signed another treaty with Russian President Vladamir Putin in 2001, the “Sino-Russian Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation.”

In the treaties, Jiang sold at least 1.5 million square kilometers of territory that belonged to China to Russia, including Wulianghai, Sakhalin Island, and Vladivostok, which is equivalent to dozens of Taiwan. Jiang also allocated the mouth of the Tumen River to Russia, sealing off the access of northeast China to the Sea of Japan.

Came to Power After Tiananmen Massacre

The CCP’s official obituary mentions Jiang’s role during the Tiananmen massacre on June 4 in 1989, saying that Jiang “supported and implemented the CCP’s stand against unrest” and “effectively maintains Shanghai’s stability.”

During the democratic movement and mass protests in 1989, Jiang was summoned to Beijing because he purged the “World Economic Herald” publication in Shanghai, which supported the student movement, and gained the favor of former CCP leader Deng Xiaoping. After the movement was violently suppressed by the regime’s military, Jiang was appointed as the new leader of the CCP.

A Chinese man stands alone to block a line of tanks heading east on Beijing’s Avenue of Eternal Peace during the Tiananmen Square massacre on June 5, 1989. Jeff Widener/AP Photo

After the Tiananmen massacre, the CCP faced sanctions and blockades from the democratic world led by the United States. Jiang pledged to improve human rights in exchange for trade benefits with the West, a promise that would go unfulfilled.

Meanwhile, he launched a nationalistic education and propaganda campaign to manipulate Chinese public opinion and sentiment against the West.

Jiang had placed his loyalists from Shanghai in many important positions since he became to power, including Zeng Qinghong, who later became the No. 2 of the Jiang faction within the party, also known as the Shanghai faction, and vice president of the country.

Corruption

Since Jiang’s era, all levels of the CCP and its military had been saturated with an unprecedented level of corruption. It had become common practice to amass wealth frantically through all means from top to bottom. Systemic corruption is now a hallmark of CCP rule.

In 2018, Chinese billionaire-in-exile in the United States Miles Guo claimed that the Jiang family is the richest in the world, and the assets that Jiang and his family “stole from the country” are as high as $500 billion, which are held by his grandson Jiang Zhicheng on behalf of the Jiang family.

Former Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang’s adviser Dr. Wu Guoguang told Voice of America that under Jiang’s rule, the corruption of individual officials developed into large-scale group corruption of high-level, middle-level, and even low-level official families. “The degree of corruption of CCP in this period is unprecedented in human history. Of course, it has created a large number of vested interests.”

Persecuting Falun Gong

When Jiang was in power, he vigorously suppressed dissidents, especially Falun Gong practitioners.

Falun Gong, a traditional spiritual practice based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, rapidly gained popularity in China in the 1990s after it was made public. The practice has been widely praised for improving physical fitness and social morality. Falun Gong has a large number of adherents across all social strata in China, which triggered Jiang’s resentment.

In 1999, despite the opposition from other members of the Standing Committee of CCP, Jiang launched a national-wide persecution campaign against Falun Gong, and even ordered the live organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners. Correspondingly, the organ transplant industry in China started booming at that time, according to the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong.

Falun Gong demonstrators march on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 17, 2014, as part of the events sponsored by the Falun Dafa Association of Washington, DC, to end "Chinese persecution of Falun Gong practitioners." Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

The persecution, which has been condemned by the international community, continues to this day. According to data from minghui.org, the known number of Falun Gong practitioners who have been persecuted to death and whose names have been identified has reached 4,828, and hundreds of thousands of practitioners have been illegally detained and tortured in detention centers, labor camps, and prisons.

Jiang stepped down from the CCP leader position in 2002, and was replaced by Hu Jintao. However, experts believe that Jiang has been controlling China’s political situation from behind the scenes. Many officials of the Jiang faction are in actual control taking orders from Jiang, which made Hu a figurehead.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping (L) talks to former leader Jiang Zemin (R) during the closing of the 19th Communist Party Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on Oct. 24, 2017. Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images

After Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, he has been fiercely infighting with the Jiang faction. In his first term, Xi took down a large number of officials from Jiang’s faction in the name of anti-corruption. However, he did not touch Jiang and Zeng Qinghong.

Died in ‘Shame’

Chen Yonglin, a former CCP diplomat, told The Epoch Times on Nov. 30, “As a butcher of people, Jiang Zemin died with humiliation and shame.” He believed that not only Jiang but also the CCP should be held accountable for the crimes they have committed. “Because although Jiang is dead, it’s not over yet. As long as the Communist Party is still there, the persecution of religion and human rights will not stop. Not only Falun Gong is being persecuted, now the regime’s ‘zero-COVID’ policy has caused people all over the country great suffering.”

Feng Chongyi, associate professor in China Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney, pointed out: “Jiang Zemin’s suppression of Falun Gong has been written in history, with shame, and he will never escape from this crime. He has committed crimes against humanity.”

Wang Xing, a former engineer from a state-owned enterprise in mainland China, said that death is the easy way out for Jiang, as “the best ending should be bringing Jiang Zemin to justice,” he said.

Li Yuanhua, a historian based in Australia, told The Epoch Times: “Jiang came to power following the Tiananmen massacre, which is inherently shameful. He started to rule the country with corruption, and made a fortune secretly. During his rule, he brought disasters to the country and the people, especially the inhumane persecution of Falun Dafa, which ultimately harmed the Chinese nation.” Ning Haizhong, Luo Ya, Li Yun, and Zhou Xiaohui contributed to this report.