On Twitter, the foreign minister extended the most heartfelt condolences to the Chinese people, the Communist Party, and the Government, as well as to the prominent political leader’s relatives and friends.

Jiang Zemin was a politician and electrical engineer who was born on August 17, 1926, in the eastern city of Yangzhou. He was the secretary general of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002 and the fifth president of the country from March 1993 to March 2003.

During his career, he held important positions in the party and government and promoted technology and economic measures that catapulted China’s development.

On Wednesday, China declared a national mourning to pay tribute to the former president, who died of leukemia and multiple organ failure on Wednesday at the age of 96.

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