Opinion | History will be kind to the meticulous and curious Jiang Zemin
- He was an unexpected choice as leader, and not especially popular among elites and intellectuals right after stepping down
- But as more learn of his professional leadership and intellectual curiosity, Jiang is winning fans
Jiang loved learning and speaking foreign languages – he had decent knowledge of English, Russian and Romanian, and familiarity with others – and he enjoyed surprising foreigners with his skills. Some may have mocked Jiang’s showboating, but languages enhanced his cross-cultural sense.
At a private dinner, Jiang announced that only English would be spoken. He then teasingly scolded one minister for not learning English by instructing the translator not to translate, and he chided another for not speaking his excellent English for fear of embarrassing Jiang with his weaker English. Jiang said, “You wouldn’t embarrass me; rather, you would help me improve.” Jiang then confided that he had been secretly studying Spanish for a year to prepare for a trip to South America.
When I first met Xi Jinping, then the Zhejiang party secretary, in February 2005, I handed him the Jiang biography, just weeks after it was published. Xi startled me by knowingly turning to one of the photo sections, pointing to a woman singing with Jiang, and asking, “Do you know who she is?” When I sheepishly shook my head “no”, Xi beamed. “That’s my wife!”
Contrary to what some book reviewers aver, Jiang didn’t choose me to be his biographer; I chose Jiang to be my subject. The biography was my idea; I planned it, financed it, and wrote it to trace China’s nonpareil story through eight tumultuous decades of trauma and transformation. I had help – translators, researchers, editors – but I maintained absolute editorial control and made every editorial decision, and no one in China ever thought otherwise.
