Jiang Zhongyu

Jiāng Zhōngyú
江钟余
Jiang in May 2008
Minister of International Relations
Incumbent
Assumed office 8th March 2022
Premier	Wen Kezhi
In office 30thMarch 2007 – 19th June 2014
Premier	Xi Yaotang
Preceded by	Qin Baoming
Succeeded by	Xu Bangguo
Premier of Shangea
In office 19th June 2014 – 8th March 2022
President	Yuan Xiannian
Deputy	Jiang Shaohong Yuan Qinqin
Preceded by	Xi Yaotang
Succeeded by	Wen Kezhi
Member of the State Presidium
Incumbent
Assumed office 30thMarch 2007
Personal details
Born	(1956-04-27) April 27, 1956 Baiqiao, Shangea
Political party	Constitutional Protection Society Society for Restoring Benevolence
Spouse	Peng Xuehong
Children	2
Alma mater	University of Baiqiao

Jiang Zhongyu (Shangean: 江钟余; fuhao: Jiāng Zhōngyú) is a Shangean politician who has been theInternational Relations Minister from March 2022 having previously served from 2007 to 2014. He was previously Premier of Shangea from 2014 to 2022 and Governor of the Nanqing province from 2000 to 2007.

Jiang was one of the young technocrats that came to prominence during economic and political reform in the 1980's as a member of conservative Constitutional Protection Society. Jiang served as a career bureaucrat within the Shangean diplomatic service being Shangea's representative at the Community of Nations from 2002 to 2007. In 2007 he was appointed as Minister of International Relations under the government of Xi Yaotang. As International Relations Minister he became closely allied with the State Chairman Yuan Xiannian and played a core role in promoting shifts in Shangean foreign policy to a more assertive role in south Coius and relying on the International Forum for Developing States to project Shangean influence.

Following the 2014 Shangean elections premier Xi resigned due to poor results for the governing Society for Restoring Benevolence with Jiang being appointed his successor. In October 2016 Jiang was implicated in the Dianfu Banking Scandal which triggered the 2016-17 Shangean Protests. Jiang kept his post following the repression of the protests and became a key player in the enforcement of Normalisation. In 2022 he became International Relations Minister again being replaced as premier by Wen Keizi.

Jiang has been identified with the relatively hardline Yuan Xiannian throughout his career, combing economic modernisation with nationalism. Under his premiership during the Normalisation programme Jiang was seen as the unofficial leader of the government's "scientific clique" advocating an authoritarian technocracy. He has also been a strong advocate for south–south cooperation and has placed more emphasis on ties with developing countries through the International Forum for Developing States. Jiang has been described as "one of Shangea's foremost political operators" due to his "ruthless pragmatism, and has been identified as the Shangean regime's chief foreign policy operator.

Early life

Jiang Zhongyu was born in 1956 in the city of Baiqiao in a working class family of dock workers’, the first of four children. He grew up in the dock workers’ district in Baiqiao which was notable at the time for extreme poverty and disease. Jiang was able to get an adequate primary education before at the age of 12 being sent to be a runner at the docks, but nevertheless continued to attend school. He was able to pass selective exams at the age of 17 to enter higher education which enabled him to attend university albeit on a loan from the government.

Jiang attended the University of Baiqiao where he studied international relations. Whilst at the University of Baiqiao Jiang met his future wife Peng Xuehong. Jiang graduated from the University of Baiqiao in 1977 and subsequently went to work for the Shangean foreign ministry.

Views

Jiang has been identified as being a moderate, being less authoritarian and anti-Senrian than his predecessor Yuan Xiannian. Jiang has called himself a pragmatist who is "only concerned with the welfare of Shangea and the Shangean people".

However some political commentators have accused Jiang of being a populist who has "shifted his views based on the situation". Shangean political scientist Hu Guxiang has stated "Jiang has few fixed principles. His ideological flexibility means he can convince nationalists, socialists and liberals that he is one their side. Hu stated however that his record generally points him as being in favour of centralising power within the regime whilst using propaganda as a tool for legitimisation rather then force.

Jiang has been called as the Shangean regime's chief ideologist and crucial in shaping Shangean politics into managed democracy.

Historical revisionism

Jiang has held contradictory positions in regards to historical revisionism. In 2002, Jiang stated that "there is no proof Shangea conducted a genocide, or indeed any form of mass killing, in the 1930's in Senria." However in 2007 following several comments by Yuan Xiannian over the genocide that were widely seen as denying its existence, Jiang stated "whilst not supporting the idea that there was a policy of genocide - there wasn't - there were some instances of mass killing by rogue units under the command of Qiu Hanjie. We recognise these mass killings as a tragedy and will continue to recognise that fact".

In 2013, Jiang called the Senrian Genocide "an issue of history...historical acts of aggression by Senria will not impact current Shangean policy".

Social welfare

Jiang has been a prominent proponent to a more balanced model of Shangean development, believing that Shangea as a nation must be "as concerned for the social welfare of the Shangean people as economic growth", stating social welfare entails "a sense of nationhood and that Shangean people are an undivided people". Jiang says however that social welfare must not disrupt entrepreneurship and the aspirational potential of the Shangean people.

Personal life

Family

Jiang has been married three times. He married his first wife, Xie Shaogong, in 1976 at the age of 20. Xie had been a childhood friend and together they had one child, a boy called Jiang Wancang who was born in 1978. However, the relationship did not last with Xie divorcing Jiang in 1984. In 1985 Jiang married Jiang Liewen, a colleague of his at the foreign ministry. The two had two children together, a boy named Jiang Chusheng and a girl named Jiang Mei, born in 1989 and 1992 respectively. Personal differences however meant in 1994 the relationship broke down with the two divorcing that year.

In 1994 shortly after his divorce he married Peng Xuehong, who had been his principal private secretary for a little over three years. Since marrying Deng Jiang has had three more children, two girls named Jiang Chen and Jiang Xun, and a boy named Jiang Junzhuo, who were born in 1996, 1998 and 2003 respectively. Jiang is said to pay a "substantial amount" of money to his former wives and other children.