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WORLD IN REVIEW
In the wake of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 and the resulting criticism from an appalled international community, a new leader emerged at the core of China's leadership. Jiang Zemin, Communist Party boss of Shanghai, clad in signature black, thickrimmed glasses, was handpicked by Deng Xiaoping to be General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). As Jiang prepares to relinquish the helm of the CCP in 2002 and the presidency in 2003, it is clear that he has been a caretaker ruler, not a reformer: Jiang's legacy has been limited to working within the framework of Deng Xiaoping's conservative political and liberal economic plan to restore some of China's luster on the international scene and to hasten economic development.
Although under Jiang's watch China moved beyond the bloody Tiananmen crackdown to success in its bids for the 2008 Olympics and World Trade Organization (WTO) accession, his attempts at crafting a personal legacy have been little more than offshoots of Deng-style reforms. The aftermath of Deng's death in 1997, well into Jiang's own term, saw little concrete change in policy or vision. Like Deng, Jiang has succeeded in quashing opposition to Party rule while advancing Chinese economic and international interests. His stance on Taiwan, a result of Deng's renewed reunification efforts in the 1980s, has managed to keep reunification on the agenda, but it has also undermined regional stability and China's relations with Japan and the United States. Jiang can claim partial credit for a stronger economy, continued Party control, and warmer foreign ties despite human-rights abuses and a stubborn Taiwan policy; yet, he is not a visionary. The success he has enjoyed in promoting Deng-inspired reforms suggests that Deng would not regret the choice he made in the dark days after Tiananmen.
The Party Man
Jiang Zemin's unexciting background made him well-suited to lead the Party through its rehabilitation from the confusion of Tiananmen. He neither struggled through the Long March, nor consolidated party views at Yan'an, nor fought for the "liberation" of his homeland. The future leader of the largest communist party in the world was born into an intellectual family in Yangzhou in 1926. He first came into contact with the CCP while attending Shanghai's Jiaotong University,...