Former Chinese leader Jiang Zimen delivers a speech at the 15th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in September 1997. Photo: Xinhua

Jiang graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1947. Photo: Xinhua

From 1955 to 1956, Jiang (second from the right) worked at the Stalin Automobile Works in Moscow as an intern. Photo: Xinhua

Jiang (front row, fifth from the right) sits for a group photo in Shanghai in March 1963 with experts from a leading group in charge of the design of small, three-phase, asynchronous motors. Photo: Xinhua

Jiang (front row, right three) poses for a group photo with colleagues and local officials during a visit to Shannon, Ireland, in October 1980. Photo: Xinhua

Jiang makes an international call to migrant workers at the Beijing Exhibition Hall during an event showcasing new electronics in the capital in May 1984. Photo: Xinhua

Jiang talks with colleagues at a meeting of the fourth session of the eighth Shanghai Municipal People's Congress in 1985. He became the city’s mayor and deputy secretary of the party’s Shanghai Municipal Committee that year. Photo: Xinhua

Jiang shakes hands with his predecessor, Deng Xiaoping, during the fifth plenary session of the 13th Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee in Beijing in November 1989. Photo: Xinhua

Jiang delivers a report at the party’s 14th national congress in Beijing in October 1992. Photo: Xinhua

Jiang holds up a piece of calligraphy he painted that reads “A More Splendid Future for Hong Kong,” at a celebration of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on July 1, 1997. Photo: Xinhua

Jiang offers words of encouragement to the people of Hong Hu, Central China’s Hubei province, in August 1998 following a flood. Photo: Xinhua

Jiang inspects the troops along Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue during a celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on Oct. 1, 1999. Photo: Xinhua

Jiang greets the former leaders of the U.S., U.K. and France, along with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in New York in September 2000. Photo: Xinhua

Jiang delivers a speech at the establishment of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference in South China’s Hainan province in February 2001. Photo: Xinhua

Jiang and his successor as president, Hu Jintao, meet with delegates of the party’s 16th national congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in November 2002. Photo: Xinhua

President Xi Jinping (center) stands on the Tiananmen Rostrum with Jiang and other leaders to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in October 2019. Photo: Xinhua