Born in August 1926, Mr. Jiang Zemin is a native of Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province. He started to participate in student movement led by the underground Party organizations in 1943 and joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in April 1946. In 1947, he graduated from the Electrical Engineering Department of Jiaotong University in Shanghai.

After the liberation of Shanghai, he served successively as associate engineer, section chief and power workshop director, factory Party secretary and first deputy director of the Shanghai Yimin No. 1 Foodstuffs Factory, first deputy director of the Shanghai Soap Factory; section chief of electrical machinery of the Shanghai No. 2 Designing Sub-bureau of First Ministry of Machine-Building Industry.

In 1955 he went to the Soviet Union and worked as a trainee in Stalin Automobile Plant in Moscow. After returning to China in 1956, he served as deputy chief of the power division, deputy chief power-engineer and director of the power plant of the Changchun No.1 Auto Works.

After 1962, he served as deputy director of Shanghai Electric Equipment Research Institute affiliated to the First Ministry of Machine-Building Industry; director and acting Party secretary of the Wuhan Thermo-Technical Machinery Research Institute affiliated to the Ministry; and deputy director and director of the Foreign Affairs Bureau of the First Ministry of Machine-Building Industry.

After 1980, he served as Vice-Chairman and Secretary-General of the State Commission on the Administration of Imports and Exports and the State Commission on the Administration of Foreign Investment and member of their leading Party groups. After 1982, he served as First Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Electronics Industry and deputy secretary of its leading Party group and later Minister and secretary of its leading Party group.

After 1985, he served as Mayor of Shanghai, Deputy Secretary and then Secretary of Shanghai Municipal Party Committee. He was elected member of the CPC Central Committee at its Twelfth National Congress in September 1982 and member of the Political Bureau at the First Plenary Session of the Thirteenth CPC Central Committee in November 1987.

In June 1989 he was elected member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and its General Secretary at the Fourth Plenary Session of the Thirteenth CPC Central Committee. In November 1989 he was elected Chairman of the Military Committee of the Central Committee at the Fifth Plenary Session of Thirteenth CPC Central Committee. In October 1992, he was elected member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, its General Secretary and Chairman of the Military Committee of the Central Committee at the First Plenary Session of the Fourteenth CPC Central Committee.

He was a deputy to the Seventh National People's Congress. In March 1990, he was elected Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of China at the Third Session of the Seventh National People's Congress.

In March 1993, he was elected President of People's Republic of China and Chairman of Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of China at the First Session of the Eighth National People's Congress.

Jiang Zemin was re-elected General Secretary of the Central Committee at the First Plenary Session of the Fifteenth CPC Central Committee held in Beijing on September 19, 1997 .

Jiang loves to make friends with intellectuals. He has many good friends in economic, scientific, art and press circles. Some friends called him a "scholar statesman." Early in 1987 when he was still Shanghai mayor, he initialed a bi-monthly seminar with scholars in the theoretical circle in Shanghai. Each time he would raise a hot or sensitive or difficult issue for the experts and scholars he invited to discuss.

Jiang stresses national self-esteem, self-confidence, national dignity and the cohesion of the Chinese nation. Jiang is highly accomplished in classic Chinese literature and often quotes ancient poems off-hand. Jiang has a wide range of interest and plays piano and erhu, a two-string traditional Chinese musical instrument. In his spare time, he may indulge himself in the music of Mozart and Beethoven. In his eyes, the Chinese and Western cultures are "communicable."

Jiang loves reading and devotes most of his spare time to reading the latest science books. He also loves to read Mark Twain. Sources close to him said Jiang could recite the monologue of "To be or not to be" in Hamlet and "Ode to the West Wind" by Shelley. In his last official tour of Russia, his analysis of the literary masterpieces by Leo Tolstoy and other Russian authors surprised the Russian guides.

Wang Yeping, his wife, graduated from the Shanghai Foreign Languages Institute and used to be head of an electrical engineering research institute in Shanghai. Now she has retired. The couple have two sons. Jiang Mianheng, the elder, obtained his doctor's degree in electronic engineering in the United States. After returning to Shanghai, he has been appointed director of the Shanghai Metallurgical Research Institute. Their younger son, Jiang Miankang, studied in Germany for a while after finishing Shanghai No. 2 University of Engineering. Now he is a researcher of software at the Shanghai Underground Pipeline Information System.