BANG A JIANG!
Chinese bigwig Jiang Zemin has died aged 96. Jiang rose to political prominence after the Tiananmen Square protests, and was selected as Deng Xiaoping’s heir apparent as a compromise candidate – ie unsympathetic to human rights, but not as openly violent about it as the party hardliners. Come 1993, he was president. He presided over China’s rise to an economic superpower and increased presence on the world stage, joining the WTO and securing the 2008 Olympics for Beijing. Hong Kong also returned to China under his watch. But par the course for Chinese leaders, he cracked down on dissidents and was particularly brutal in his treatment of the Falun Gong.
Nevertheless his colourful personality – he loved to sing Elvis and once tried to convince the Queen to do karaoke – and his considerably worse successors have ushered in a wave of Jiang nostalgia. Not unlike waxing nostalgic for Theresa May these days. Known as “the Toad” by his younger fans due to his physical resemblance to the amphibian, his last words can be heard below:
Jiang was in declining health and speculation heated up with his absence from recent party events. The man whose guiding ideology was known as “Three Represents” had 14 represents in the DDP, including Feng Shui Pig, Star Dust, and a smattering of world leader theme teams. Of these, Complications from a fall the biggest winner, continuing to keep the Theme Team League a tight race. Drolmas came early it seems…
Jiang Zemin
17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022, aged 96
14 TEAMS (💀💀💀💀💀 5 POINTS)