Jiang Zemin

Tell you what, I've been through hundreds of battles. I've seen it all.

Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (1989-2002) and the President of the People's Republic of China (1993-2003).

Quotes

1990s

• I don't think this man was killed by the tank. I can't confirm whether this young man you mentioned was arrested or not. I think that he was never killed.
  • When asked about Tank Man of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests during an interview with Barbara Walters, as quoted in "The Tank Man" (1990), PBS.

2000s

• A review of our party's seventy-plus-year history elicits an important conclusion. Our party earned the people's support during the historical periods of revolution, construction and reform because it always represented the requirements for developing China's advanced productive forces, the orientation of China's advanced culture and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people. The party also earned popular support because it fought tirelessly to realize the fundamental interests of the country and the people by formulating a correct line, principles and policies. Today, humanity once again stands at the beginning of a new century and a new millennium. How our party can better effectuate the Three Represents under the new historical conditions is a major issue all Party comrades, especially high-ranking party cadres, must consider deeply.
  • Three Represents (25 February 2000).

• The Communist Party of China should represent the development trends of advanced productive forces, the orientations of an advanced culture and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people of China.
  • Three Represents (25 February 2000), introduced by Jiang Zemin, as quoted in What Is "Three Represents" CPC Theory?. Retrieved on 9 December 2013.

• We want to learn from the west about science and technology and how to manage the economy, but this must be combined with specific conditions here. That's how we have made great progress in the last twenty years.
  • As quoted in "Jiang Zemin Talks With Wallace" (August 2000), CBS.

• He was never arrested. I don't know where he is now.
  • When asked about Tank Man of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests during an interview with Mike Wallace, as quoted in "China's Leader Talks To 60 Minutes" (31 August 2000), CBS.

• You are very familiar with western ways, but you are too young. You go everywhere to follow the big news, but the questions you ask are too simple — sometimes naïve. Understand, or not?
  • Leader of China Angrily Chastises Hong Kong Media (October 2000). Also quoted as All over the world, wherever you go to, you always run faster than western journalists. But the questions you keep asking are too simple, sometimes naïve.

• This experience and the historical experiences gained by the Party since its founding can be summarized as follows: Our Party must always represent the requirements for developing China's advanced productive forces, the orientation of China's advanced culture and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people. These are the inexorable requirements for maintaining and developing socialism, and the logical conclusion our Party has reached through hard exploration and great praxis.
  • Work report at the Communist Party of China Congress (8 November 2002), as quoted in Selected Works of Jiang Zemin, Eng. ed., FLP, Beijing, 2013, Vol. III, p. 519.

"Too simple, sometimes naïve"

On 27 October 2000, Hong Kong reporters attended Jiang's press conference. Questions were raised by Sharon Cheung over the re-election campaign of Tung Chee-hwa, then Chief Executive of Hong Kong.

(Words originally spoken in English are bold, those in Cantonese are in italics)

• Cheung: President Jiang, do you think it’ll be good for Mr. Tung to serve another consecutive term?
• Jiang: That’ll be good!
• Reporter: Does the Central Government support him too?
• Jiang: Of course.
• Cheung: Why is this being raised at such an early juncture? Is there no other candidate?
• Jiang: Sorry, I don't have any more time to talk to you about this.
• Cheung: The European Union recently published a report saying that Beijing will use certain channels to influence and interfere with the rule of law in Hong Kong. What's your response to that?
• Jiang: Never heard of it.
• Cheung: It’s Chris Patten who said that.
• Jiang: No, you can't just... You people in the media should take note: feeling the wind doesn't mean it's going to rain. When you receive news like this, you also have to make an independent judgment. Do you understand what I'm saying? Suppose these things are totally fabricated, and you repeat what he [Patten] says, equally, you'd also be responsible.
• Cheung: President Jiang, even at such an early stage, the party has expressed its support for Mr. Tung. Won't that give people the impression that an internal decision has already been made? That Mr. Tung had been appointed by imperial decree?
• Jiang: (to Qian Qichen) What did she say?
• Qian: She asked, in supporting Mr. Tung so early, whether the decision has already been internally to appoint Mr. Tung by imperial decree.
• Jiang: No. There's no such implication whatsoever. There's still compliance with Hong Kong's Basic Law, compliance with the election laws...
• Cheung: But can you...
• Jiang: When you asked me that just now, I could've just replied in one sentence: "No comment." But then again, you people still wouldn't be happy. So what should I do?
• Cheung: Mr. Tung...
• Jiang: What I said does not mean I have appointed him by imperial decree to serve the next term. You asked me whether I supported him. I said I do. I've told you clearly..
• Cheung: President Jiang...
• Jiang: I think you people... I feel that you mass-media people still have a lot to learn. You people are so familiar with Western values, but at the end of the day, you are still too young. Do you understand what I mean? Let me say this: I've been through hundreds of battles. I've seen it all! Which country in the West have I not been to? You media people should know America's Mike Wallace. He's so far ahead of you people I can't even see him! Hey, I talked and laughed with him! That's why when I talk about the media... you still need to raise your level of knowledge! You know what I mean? Got it?
• Cheung: President Jiang...
• Jiang: I'm worried for you all, truly. You people today, I would have expected... Everywhere you go... You guys are good at one thing. Running all over the world, you run faster than those Western journalists. Nonetheless, you ask questions here and there, and they're all too simple, sometimes naïve. Understand yet?
• Cheung: President Jiang, do you think...
• Jiang: Understand yet?
• Jiang: I'm sorry to say this, but today I'm speaking to you as an elder. I am not a journalist, but I've seen too much. I need to give you people some real-life experience.
• Reporters: But can you say why you support Tung Chee-hwa?
• Jiang: Just now I... The most important point...
• Jiang: I was really thinking just now, that every time I meet you people and we talk — in China we have this saying "quietly make a fortune" — it would be better if I just didn't say anything! But I think that when I saw you people being so enthusiastic just now, it wouldn't have been right for me to not have said anything. As a result, you just had to insist... in the public arena, if your reporting ever contains inaccuracies, you will be held responsible. I never said I am appointing by decree, never said anything of the sort. But you asked... You just had to feel compelled to ask me whether I supported Mr. Tung. How can we not support him? He's the current Chief Executive. How can we not support the Chief Executive...
• Reporters [interjecting]: But what about re-election...
• Jiang: ... Correct?
• Jiang: Eh? To serve another term, you must follow the law of Hong Kong, correct? You should follow Hong Kong's... Of course, our power to make the decision is also very important. Hong Kong SAR, Special Administrative Region, belongs to the Central Government of the People's Republic of China. When the time comes, we will will tell you!
• Reporters: But...
• Jiang: Do you understand? You people. Don't even think about trying to stir the pot by creating a big scandal, saying that I'd already made the imperial decree and criticising me.
• Reporters: Well no, but...
• Jiang: You people! Naive!
• Reporters: But, that is...
• Security: Ok, ok...
• Jiang: I'm angry! Let me say this, what you're doing is inappropriate.
• Security: Ok, ok, ok. Everyone please leave.
• Jiang: Perhaps I've offended you today!

As quoted in "Former president Jiang Zemin unleashes a long tirade after a Hong Kong reporter asks him if Beijing had issued an "imperial order" to support Tung Chee-hwa in his bid to seek a second term as Chief Executive" (October 2014), Facebook and 江泽民怒斥香港记者完全版 - Youtube

Quotes about

• After my speech, the President detached himself from the group of appalling old waxworks who accompanied him and took his place at the lectern. He then gave a kind of "propaganda" speech which was loudly cheered by the bussed-in party faithful at the suitable moment in the text.
  • Charles III, Entry in private journal about the handover of British sovereignty in Hong Kong in 1997 referring to President Jiang Zemin of China; as quoted in "Appalling waxworks", by Katie Nicholl and Dominic Turnbull Mail on Sunday (13 November 2005) p. 1

• The elderly Deng was confident that no jeopardy existed for his strategy, and he stepped down from his burdensome offices in November 1989 while retaining the unofficial power of general political oversight. His protégé Jiang Zemin became leader. The process of economic reform slowed for a while. But Deng’s tour of southern provinces in 1992 revived it, and China’s transformation quickened again. Private companies sprang up in all cities and many villages. The most dynamic zones lay along the Pacific coast. Investment poured in from abroad. Multinational companies long excluded from Chinese industry and commerce set up in Beijing, Shanghai and Guanzhou. Gross domestic product rose exponentially as private enterprise from home and abroad injected the most up-to-date technology into an industrial sector which offered a cheap, educated, co-operative and disciplined labour force. By 2003 China share of the world’s gross production had risen to 12 per cent.
  • Robert Service, Comrades: A History of World Communism (2010)