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Jiang Zemin Death Rumors

July 6, 2011 by · Comments Off on Jiang Zemin Death Rumors 

Jiang Zemin Death RumorsJiang Zemin Death Rumors, Rumors that retired Chinese leader Jiang Zemin was dead or dying ran through China Internet on Wednesday, sending confidence in full swing to remove them and in turn drove people to craft ever more cryptic ads and inventiveness.

Searches for “Jiang Zemin” in Chinese, or simply “Jiang” – meaning “river” – drew warnings from Sina Corp. ‘s popular Twitter as the service said the search was illegal. In response to the messages began appearing on the former leader of “River” in English.

The Internet cat and mouse over the possible death of a former secret underlines the leadership of the Communist Party of China remains – and the difficulties of keeping the secret of a good cable company.

Rumors about the poor health of Jiang, 84 years old, have leaked for months and reappeared after he was not present at the celebration on Friday to the 90 th anniversary of the founding of the party. Other current and former leaders – a veteran revolutionary age of 94, among others – were shown by the state media prominently in attendance at the Great Hall of Beijing people.

The press office of the Government, the Information Office of the State Council, refused to answer questions about Jiang, who led China to a dozen years before the transfer of power to President Hu Jintao in 2002. State media have not reported the rumors. Hong Kong television reported the death of Jiang Wednesday night, citing unnamed sources.

Even with official silence, the Chinese government and society humming as usual – unlike when paramount leader Deng Xiaoping died in 1997. Rumors of the death of Deng repeatedly Hong Kong stock market swoon as investors were concerned about the capitalist reforms he championed to die with him.

On Wednesday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 1 percent in listless trade and China’s Shenzhen and Shanghai stock remained stable. The Council of Ministers met to discuss the debt and the central bank raised interest rates.

“We will not see a coup of any kind,” University of Nottingham scholar Steve Tsang, who is an expert on China series. “We will not see a leadership change as a result of Jiang Zemin passes, and we will not see a significant change in any major policy.”

In cyberspace, web censors tried to quell any speculation by abolishing internal blog posts about Jiang and blocking reports the media abroad which cited unnamed sources saying that Jiang was on its deathbed. When the character “Jiang” is stuck in Weibo Sina microblogging service, all kinds of variations of English for Jiang’s name began to appear – a typical tactic to get around sensitive issues.

There were messages of “Ze River People ‘,”Pond River People” and “People brightness river. “One user, writing under the username Tonnlin published an illustration of the” target “, which refers to a toast to the dead,” Jonn Ze Min “written on it.

David Bandurski, an expert on the media and China watcher at the University of Hong Kong, said that censorship couldn’t completely scour the Web for any reference to a forbidden subject, but effective monitoring and the limits of the segments discussions of sensitive topics.

As a result, debates become “ghettos” – limited to small groups of online friends who understand the code words, he said.

When it comes to any kind of domestic policy, Chinese officials still “want to control the conversation and ultimately, as they can,” he said.

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