President Xi, top officials pay respects to former leader Jiang Zemin

Beijing, The Gulf Observer: Chinese President Xi Jinping and other current and previous top officials paid their respects Monday to former leader Jiang Zemin, who died last week at age 96.

State broadcaster CCTV showed Xi, his predecessor Hu Jintao and others bowing to Jiang’s body at a military hospital in Beijing. Jiang’s body was then sent for cremation at Babaoshan cemetery, where many top leaders are interred.

A formal memorial service is scheduled for Tuesday at the Great Hall of the People, the seat of the ceremonial legislature in the center of Beijing.

Jiang died of leukemia and multiple organ failure last Wednesday in Shanghai, state media reported. The party declared him a “great proletarian revolutionary” and “long-tested Communist fighter.”