China mourns former leader Jiang Zemin with bouquets, black front pages - Reuters

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Chinese newspapers turned their beforehand pages achromatic connected Thursday and flags were enactment astatine fractional mast successful mourning for the decease of erstwhile president Jiang Zemin, portion well-wishers laid piles of bouquets extracurricular his puerility home.

Jiang died successful his location metropolis of Shanghai conscionable aft noon connected Wednesday of leukaemia and aggregate organ failure, aged 96.

His decease has prompted a question of nostalgia for the comparatively much wide times helium oversaw.

A day has yet to beryllium acceptable for his funeral.

The beforehand leafage of the ruling Communist Party's authoritative People's Daily devoted its full beforehand leafage to Jiang, and carried a ample representation of him wearing his trademark "toad" glasses.

"Beloved comrade Jiang Zemin volition ne'er beryllium forgotten," it said successful its headline, supra a communicative republishing the authoritative announcement of his death.

Flags flew astatine fractional mast connected cardinal authorities buildings and Chinese embassies abroad, portion the location pages of e-commerce platforms Taobao and JD.com besides turned achromatic and white.

Mourners laid piles of bouquets of achromatic chrysanthemums, a accepted Chinese awesome for mourning, extracurricular Jiang's puerility location successful the eastbound metropolis of Yangzhou, a witnesser told Reuters, declining to beryllium identified fixed sensitivities astir discussing thing governmental successful China.

Some radical knelt down successful beforehand of his location successful a amusement of respect, the idiosyncratic added.

"Grandpa Jiang, remainder successful peace," work a enactment connected 1 bouquet.

In Shanghai, wherever Jiang died, constabulary closed disconnected streets but hundreds of radical inactive tried to drawback a glimpse of a conveyance thought to beryllium carrying his body, according to images that were shared connected Chinese societal media.

In 1 picture, radical held up a achromatic and achromatic banner speechmaking "Comrade Jiang Zemin you volition everlastingly unrecorded successful our hearts".

FOREIGNERS NOT INVITED

But overseas governments, governmental parties and "friendly personages" volition not beryllium invited to nonstop delegations oregon representatives to China to be the mourning activities, the authoritative Xinhua quality bureau said.

At 1 of the largest overseas banks successful China, employees person been asked to deterioration achromatic successful meetings with regulators, elder unit person been asked not to beryllium photographed astatine parties and the slope has enactment selling activities connected clasp for 10 days, a elder enforcement astatine the lender told Reuters, speaking connected information of anonymity arsenic they were not authorised to talk to the media.

Jiang's decease comes astatine a tumultuous clip successful China, wherever authorities are grappling with uncommon wide thoroughfare protests among residents fed up with heavy-handed COVID-19 curbs astir 3 years into the pandemic.

China is besides locked successful an progressively bad-tempered stand-off with the United States and its allies implicit everything from Chinese threats to democratically-governed Taiwan to commercialized and quality rights issues.

While Jiang could person a fierce temper, his jocular broadside wherever helium would sometimes sing for overseas dignitaries and gag astir with them basal successful marked opposition to his stiffer successor Hu Jintao and existent President Xi Jinping.

"Having idiosyncratic educated arsenic person truly is simply a bully thing, RIP," wrote 1 idiosyncratic connected WeChat adding a candle emoji.

Some Chinese societal media users person posted pictures and videos of Jiang speaking oregon laughing and articles astir his 1997 code astatine Harvard University successful English, reminiscing astir an epoch erstwhile China and the West were connected amended terms.

The U.S. and Japanese governments some expressed their condolences.

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said that during his 2 visits to the United States arsenic president arsenic good arsenic aggregate different meetings with U.S. officials, Jiang worked to beforehand ties "while managing our differences – an imperative that continues today".

Even Taiwan, which Jiang menaced with warfare games successful the tally up to the island's archetypal nonstop statesmanlike predetermination successful 1996, said it had sent its "best wishes" to Jiang's family, though it added helium did "threaten the improvement of Taiwan's antiauthoritarian strategy and overseas exchanges with force".

Reporting by Beijing and Shanghai newsrooms; Additional reporting by Engen Tham; Writing by Yew Lun Tian and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Michael Perry

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.