China holds memorial service for late leader Jiang Zemin

China on Tuesday held a formal memorial service for late leader Jiang Zemin Jiang, who was eulogized by China's communist leaders as a loyal Marxist-Leninist. He died at the age of 96. (AP)

With his 'Three Represents’ theory that he got written into the constitution of the CCP, Jiang Zemin modernised the party and the communist movement (AP)

After taking over from reformist leader Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin oversaw the handover of Hong Kong from British rule in 1997 and Beijing’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001.(AP)

President and party leader Xi Jinping Tuesday praised Jiang in an hour-long address at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People as senior officials and military brass stood at attention. (AP)

Xi recalled Jiang’s lengthy political career, emphasizing his role in maintaining political stability in allusion to Jiang’s rise to be top leader just ahead of the army’s bloody suppression of the 1989 student-led pro-democracy movement centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square (AP)

In this image taken from video footage run by China's CCTV, a Chinese Communist Party flag covers the cremated remains of late former Chinese President Jiang Zemin during the formal memorial held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday (AP)

A trained engineer and former head of China’s largest city, Shanghai, Jiang was president for a decade, and led the ruling Communist Party for 13 years until 2002. Here, a Chinese flag flies at half mast in front of the Lujiazui financial district, on the day of the memorial service for former Chinese President Jiang Zemin. (Reuters)