China party officials pay respects to former leader Jiang

Chinese President Xi Jinping and other current and previous top officials paid their respects Monday to former leader Jiang Zemin, who died last week at age 96.
State broadcaster CCTV showed Xi, his predecessor Hu Jintao and others bowing to Jiang’s body at a military hospital in Beijing. Jiang’s body was then sent for cremation at Babaoshan cemetery, where many top leaders are interred. A formal memorial service is scheduled for Tuesday at the Great Hall of the People, the seat of the ceremonial legislature in the center of Beijing.
Jiang led China out of isolation after the army crushed student-led pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989 and supported economic reforms that led to a decade of explosive growth.