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The body of the former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin has arrived in Beijing after being driven through the streets of Shanghai in a highly choreographed scene contrasting sharply with protests this week calling for the removal of the Communist party.
China Central Television in its main evening news broadcast on Thursday showed footage of a hearse carrying Jiang’s body through Shanghai, while people dressed in black – likely to have been government employees – lined the streets and bowed their heads in silence.
Authorities appeared to be confident that Jiang’s death would not spark spontaneous public mourning that could spiral out of control just days after protests in Shanghai and other cities over coronavirus restrictions.
State funerals and the commemoration of dead Chinese leaders are highly controlled by the Communist party, and spontaneous tributes among ordinary citizens have often been suppressed.
On arrival in Beijing, Jiang’s body – wearing his signature black-rimmed glasses – could be seen in a glass coffin carried out of a plane by 12 People’s Liberation Army soldiers.
Xi Jinping and other party leaders, all dressed in black and wearing white flowers on their lapels, bowed in a ceremony at a Beijing airport.
Jiang’s death was accorded the highest level of protocol, with state media referring to him as “a great Marxist and proletarian revolutionist, statesman, military strategist, diplomat, a proven communist fighter, an outstanding leader of socialism with Chinese characteristics”.
