The body of the late CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin was cremated this morning escorted by the current General Secretary Xi Jinping and other leaders, while the former President who was "excluded" from the closing ceremony of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China Secretary Hu Jintao also went to the hospital to attend the farewell ceremony.

(Reuters)

[Central News Agency] CCTV reported that the body of the late CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin was escorted by current General Secretary Xi Jinping and other leaders to be cremated at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery this morning.

Former General Secretary Hu Jintao also went to the hospital to attend the farewell ceremony.

On the other hand, since Jiang Zemin's death, overseas circles have been speculating about the relationship between the announcement of Jiang Zemin's death and the "White Paper Movement".

But commentators disagree on this.

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According to reports, including Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Han Zheng, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Li Xi, Wang Qishan and other high-level CCP party and government leaders and representatives from all walks of life went to the People's Liberation Army General Assembly this morning. The farewell room of the hospital (301 Hospital) saw Jiang Zemin farewell, and then escorted his body to Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery for cremation.

Whether Hu Jintao, who is in poor health and was forcibly taken away from the closing ceremony of the 20th CPC National Congress, will attend the farewell ceremony has received attention from the outside world in advance.

According to reports, Hu Jintao also went to the hospital to see Jiang Zemin off in the morning.

The report pointed out that Jiang Zemin's farewell ceremony was held at 10:00 a.m., and 15 minutes later, his spirit moved to the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery. Xi Jinping and other leaders accompanied him there and made his final farewell in the auditorium.

On both sides of Fuxing Road along the way of Yiling, there were people from various government agencies and organizations in Beijing who went to pay their respects and stood in black uniforms.

Regarding whether the news of Jiang Zemin's death is "diverting the attention of the white paper movement" and "increasing funeral standards", the Voice of America (VOA) Chinese website reported that former Radio Hong Kong program "Headline News" host Zeng Zhihao believed that although objectively, the CCP It is possible to operate in this way, but the public will inevitably think of the relative openness of Jiang Zemin's era when "it was easier to make a lot of money" and "the relationship between the United States and China was better". Compared with the era of Xi Jinping, such an operation is actually a risk.

Sang Pu, chairman of the Taiwan-Hong Kong Association, said that even though the CCP used the news of Jiang Zemin’s death to divert the attention of the “white paper revolution”, the reason for the real success in diverting attention was the loosening of epidemic prevention measures in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chengdu and other places. The method of "unifying a large area and isolating a small group" is more effective than releasing the news of Jiang Zemin's death.

Zeng Jianyuan, chairman of the Association of Chinese Democratic Colleges in Taiwan, also believes that news of Jiang Zemin's death has been reported repeatedly in the past 10 years, and his death can be said to be widely expected.

Therefore, if the CCP wants to use the news of Jiang Zemin's death for political manipulation, the effect will be limited.

After the cremation of Jiang Zemin's body today, the CCP will hold a high-level memorial meeting at the People's Congress in Beijing on the morning of the 6th. The whole country will observe a silence of 3 minutes and whistles will be honked, and flags will be flown at half-staff throughout the day. This is regarded as a national mourning meeting.

Some commentators believe that Jiang Zemin's achievements cannot be compared with Deng Xiaoping, the second generation leader of the Communist Party of China, but Jiang's funeral arrangements can be compared with Deng Xiaoping's.

However, Deng's mourning standards cannot be compared with that of the first generation leader Mao Zedong, which shows that Jiang Zemin's funeral standards seem to have been deliberately raised; As generation-level leaders, the two have similar funeral standards and there is nothing to discuss.