The former Chinese president Jiang Zemin has died aged 96, state media has said.
Mr Jiang, who was president from 1989 to 2003, died from leukaemia and multiple organ failure on Wednesday afternoon in Shanghai.
He came to power after the Tiananmen Square protests.
Mr Jiang stepped down as party chief in 2002, but remained head of the military for another year.
His death comes as China faces widespread anti-lockdown protests across the country on a level of dissent likened to the 1989 pro-democracy movement centred on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
Under Mr Jiang, China weathered the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001 and won the bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics in the country’s capital.
He also saw the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 following the British handover.
The former president was last seen in public in October 2019 among other former leaders watching a military parade at Tiananmen Square.
