China state media dismiss reports of Jiang's death (AP)

BEIJING – China on Thursday dismissed as rumor reports that retired President Jiang Zemin, who led the country through massive changes after the crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement, has died.

The official Xinhua News Agency quoted what it called authoritative sources as saying the reports were "pure rumor." The one-sentence dispatch in English wasn't carried by the Chinese-language service of the state-run agency, indicating it was meant for overseas audiences.

The need to comment underscores the difficulties the secretive, authoritarian government faces in controlling information. While state media are under tight control, foreign reports seep into China via the Internet, giving Chinese access to news — and rumors — the leadership dislikes.

An official from the Cabinet's information office said only, "It's a rumor," when asked about Jiang's death. The official, like many in China, would give only her surname, Li.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei refused to comment directly on Jiang, referring reporters at a regular news conference Thursday to the Xinhua report.

The denials follow days of intense online conjecture over whether Jiang, 84, had died or was close to death, fueled by his failure to appear at last Friday's celebration of the 90th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party's founding.

A Hong Kong TV station and Japanese and South Korean media had reported Jiang had died. None of the reports had named sources, and the Hong Kong broadcaster, ATV, retracted the report and apologized to its audience, Jiang and his family Thursday.

While the rumors were suppressed on the mainland, they were widely reported in the semiautonomous Chinese territory that's promised Western-style civil liberties including freedom of speech. The speculation was splashed on the front pages of leading Hong Kong newspapers on Thursday.

The central Chinese government's liaison office in Hong Kong blasted ATV. The Hong Kong China News Agency reported an unidentified official from the office "expressed extreme anger at ATV's serious violation of journalism ethics."

Hong Kong Journalists Association chairwoman Mak Yin-ting said she believed that responsible journalists verify their sources.

"But no one can say their information is 100 percent accurate. Your sources could be wrong," she said.

The Internet speculation sent censors into overdrive to excise the comments.

Searches for "Jiang Zemin" in Chinese or simply "Jiang" — which means "river" — drew warnings on Sina Corp.'s popular Twitter-like service that said the search was illegal. Some posts then began appearing on Sina Weibo about former leader "River" in English.

News that some overseas media had reported Jiang's death whizzed around the social networking site, with some mainland users puzzling over how Hong Kong media could have received the news first.

The government is very secretive about the health of top leaders and is particularly sensitive ahead of a leadership transition that starts late next year at a major Communist Party congress. The death of Jiang, a retired but still very influential figure, could cause some of his proteges to shift allegiances, affecting the jockeying for power among China's rising political elites.

China prefers to keep such machinations behind the scenes as much as possible.

Jiang led China for a dozen years until transferring power to President Hu Jintao in 2002.

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AP reporter Min Lee in Hong Kong and AP researcher Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to this report.

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TV report of China leader's death fuels political rumor mill (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese state media denied rum ours on Thursday that former president Jiang Zemin had died after a Hong Kong television station said he had, sparking a wave of speculation about a leadership transition due next year.

"Recent reports of some overseas media organizations about Jiang Zemin's death from illness are pure rumor," the official Xinhua news agency quoted "authoritative sources" as saying.

Jiang, 84, is in poor health. Three sources with ties to China's leadership told Reuters that he is in intensive care in Beijing at the No. 301 military hospital after suffering a heart attack.

In the opaque world of Chinese politics, the health of a leader is fodder for rumors about how the balance of power is shifting at the highest levels of the government.

Current President Hu Jintao retires from office from late next year in a sweeping leadership overhaul, and the rumors about Jiang's health underscore the uncertainties around this.

Hong Kong's Asia Television interrupted its main newscast on Wednesday evening to announce solemnly that Jiang had died, and followed with a brief profile. It kept up the news for several hours on a ticker and then said it would air a special report on Jiang's life late in the evening.

It later canceled the report, and withdrew the ticker after failing to get official confirmation.

On Thursday afternoon, the television station issued a statement to apologize to its audience and Jiang's family.

"Asia Television has taken note of this afternoon's report from Xinhua and has withdrawn last night's report about Mr. Jiang Zemin's death and would like to apologize to our audience and Mr. Jiang Zemin's family," the statement said.

Meanwhile, the Shandong News website (www.sdnews.com.cn) in northeast China posted a black banner with white characters, saying "Our Respectable Comrade Jiang Zemin Is Immortal." The site was no longer accessible on Thursday.

China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei deflected numerous questions about Jiang at a regular news briefing, saying Xinhua had already made a full explanation and that he had nothing further to add.

Searches on a popular Chinese micro-blogging site with terms ranging from "Jiang Zemin" to the Yangtze River (Jiang's surname means "river"), are blocked, a sign that China's censors are concerned about public debate about his health.

Premature reports about the demise of Chinese leaders are hardly new. In the 1990s, Hong Kong and Japanese media reported several times that paramount leader Deng Xiaoping had died.

UNCERTAINTY FOR JIANG ALLIES

Jiang Zemin's passing -- on the surface at least -- would likely have limited impact on the direction of China's politics and economic development.

He retired long ago, handing over the Communist Party's top job to Hu in 2002 and his other posts over the next two years. Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao have since led the country on a decade-long charge that saw it grow from an economy the size of Britain to one that has surpassed Japan.

But the prospect of Jiang's passing would add a breeze of uncertainty to a transition that is widely thought to hand power from Hu to a new generation led by Xi Jinping, currently vice president. That would take place at the 18th Communist Party Congress expected sometime in the autumn of 2012.

Xi, anointed as Hu's heir apparent at the congress in 2007, was considered acceptable to both the Hu and Jiang camps.

But in China, the death of a senior leader can be cause for worry, and even spell disaster, for proteges and allies who are no longer protected.

Hu would no longer have Jiang acting as a counterweight to his influence over the future make up of the next leadership.

"New leaders are selected by old leaders," Zheng Yongnian, professor of Chinese politics at the National University of Singapore. "He's one of the important selectorate. After he passes away, other current leaders will become more influential."

He could also settle scores or take down other rivals with links to Jiang, if necessary.

Past leaders can have considerable clout in China. Deng wielded power as paramount leader despite having given up all his posts except the honorary chairman of the Chinese bridge association.

Jiang consolidated his own grip on power after Deng died in 1997. By the time Jiang retired his last post -- as head of the military commission -- in 2004, he had already stacked the Politburo with his people.

"Front and back, left and right, up and down. No matter where Hu looks, there is a Jiang man," said one source at the time the leadership line-up was announced back in 2002.

In Jiang's case, there are quite a few allies still in place in the leadership who might now have cause for concern, should Hu assert himself.

"If he dies, the situation becomes very delicate," said one source with ties to leadership circles who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the subject.

Among the Jiang allies still in senior posts are: Wu Bangguo, parliament chief and the second ranking person in the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee; Jia Qinglin, who heads a parliamentary advisory body and is ranked fourth; and Li Changchun, who oversees propaganda and ideology and is ranked fifth.

How exactly it will play it out, is unclear. With the Party Congress only about 15 months away, Hu's window to further consolidate his grip on power is considerably shorter than Jiang had as he prepared to step down.

(Writing by Brian Rhoads; Additional reporting by Alison Leung in HONG KONG and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING,; Editing by Don Durfee and John Chalmers)

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