A photo of Yang Xiong leaning against a wall with a vest bag in his hand in Fuxing Middle Road was circulated online on Dec. 4, 2018. (Screenshot from Weibo)
Hong Kong media sources said that Yang Xiong, the former mayor of Shanghai, passed away on December 12 due to a heart attack. Yang Xiong was said to be close to Jiang Zemin’s eldest son Jiang Mianheng.
On April 12, Hong Kong media outlet Sing Tao Daily quoted sources as saying that Yang Xiong, deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and former mayor of Shanghai, died of a heart attack at 12:20 a.m. in Shanghai Huashan Hospital at the age of 68.
According to sources quoted by Xu Shiping, former president of Shanghai Oriental Network, Yang Xiong was sent to the hospital with a heart attack at 10 p.m. on the 11th, and was pronounced dead at 12:20 p.m. The hospital concluded that he died suddenly of cardiac origin.
Public information shows that Yang Xiong has long worked in Shanghai’s financial system, served as deputy director of the Municipal Planning Commission, general manager of Shanghai Lianhe Investment Co. in 2001, as deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai Municipal Government, two years later was elected vice mayor, in 2012 as deputy secretary of the municipal party committee, in 2013 as mayor.
In 2017, Yang Xiong stepped down as mayor, and on February 24 of the same year, he moved to become deputy chairman of the Finance and Economy Committee of the National People’s Congress of the Communist Party of China. in March 2018, he became deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Political Consultative Conference of the Communist Party of China.
On December 4 of the same year, a photo of Yang Xiong leaning against a wall with a vest bag in his hand in Fuxing Middle Road was circulated online, looking a bit downbeat. Compared to his predecessors, Yang Xiong became the first mayor of Shanghai in more than 30 years not to be promoted to the vice state level or to the top of the Communist Party.
Yang’s predecessors, Jiang Zemin, Zhu Rongji, Huang Ju, Chen Liangyu and Han Zheng, were all promoted to secretary of the municipal party committee, and Xu Kuangdi was promoted to vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
Yang Xiong is said to have close ties with Jiang Zemin’s eldest son, Jiang Mianheng. Previously, overseas media quoted sources as saying that Yang Xiong rose to the position of Shanghai mayor thanks to “Er Jiang”. The “Er Jiang” refers to Jiang Zemin and Jiang Mianheng. Yang Xiong was under Jiang Zemin’s command when he was secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee.
Yang Xiong had a number of encounters with Jiang Mianheng before he joined the Shanghai government in 2001. In the early 1990s, after Jiang Mianheng returned to Shanghai, he set up Shanghai Lianhe Investment Co.
Yang Xiong also served as chairman of Shanghai Airlines and chairman of the supervisory board of Shanghai Airlines Co. In 2001, Yang Xiong gave up business to become a politician, allegedly because of Jiang Mianheng.
It was reported earlier that everyone in Shanghai knew that Yang Xiong was the mayor of Shanghai on the stage and Jiang Mianheng was the mayor of the underground, and that the mayor of the stage obeyed the mayor of the underground.
It is widely believed that Yang Xiong, who is a close associate of Jiang Mianheng, has not been trusted by Xi Jinping. Previously, Hong Kong media reported that Yang Xiong had been interviewed by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) in June 2016 to make an inspection at the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee’s life meeting.
In recent years, Xi Jinping’s administration has continued to lay out and cleanse the Shanghai officialdom, and the Shanghai political and business sectors have continued to reel, with many senior officials falling from power, mostly close to Jiang Zemin and his son.
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