Former President of the People’s Republic of China Jiang Zemin has died at 96.

Reliable sources announced via letters that Mr Jiang died in Shanghai on Wednesday at about 12:13 p.m.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the State Council of the PRC, the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and the Central Military Commissions of the CPC and the PRC announced in a letter they issued.

The letter quoted all the groups as condoling with the whole party, the entire military, and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups over the passing of “our beloved Comrade Jiang Zemin,” who died of leukaemia and multiple organ failure after all medical treatments had failed.

The letter said Mr Jiang was an outstanding leader who enjoyed high prestige and was acknowledged by the whole party, the entire military, and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups.

It described him as a great Marxist, a great proletarian revolutionary, a statesman, a military strategist, a diplomat, a long-tested communist fighter, and an outstanding leader of the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

It added that Jiang was the core of the CPC’s third generation of central collective leadership and the principal founder of the Theory of Three Represents.

(Xinhua/NAN)