BEIJING (Kyodo) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday highlighted the achievements of late leader Jiang Zemin, including his promotion of reform and opening-up policies to secure rapid economic growth as well as maintaining stability in Shanghai following the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident.

Xi's remarks commending Jiang's "resolute decisions" and his responses to challenges at "key historical junctures" to ensure the country's steady advancement were apparently aimed at boosting morale within the ruling Communist Party and allegiance to its leadership before a twice-a-decade party congress slated for 2027.

The speech was delivered at a ceremony held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Jiang, who died in 2022 at the age of 96, managed China's 2001 accession to the World Trade Organization and the nation's winning bid, the same year, for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, which were major milestones in his 13-year tenure at the apex of power through 2002.

During that time, China's economy grew at an average rate of 9 percent annually. Jiang also presided over Hong Kong's return to China from Britain in 1997.

The late leader was born in 1926 in Yangzhou in China's eastern Jiangsu Province. Jiang was handpicked to lead China by former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, the mastermind of the nation's economic reform.

Jiang rose to the Communist Party's top position following the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests. At the time of the incident, he was the party's top official in Shanghai.

In Shanghai, Jiang developed a power base that would eventually propel him to the country's leadership. He was known for playing a role in escalating anti-Japan sentiment, especially among young people in China, as he led a nationwide patriotic education program in the 1990s.