China's ex-leader Jiang Zemin, an influential reformer, has died at 96

Former Chinese leader and general secretary of the country's ruling Communist Party Jiang Zemin died at the age of 96, state news agency Xinhua announced. The cause of death was leukemia and multiple organ failure.

Jiang was a divisive and colorful figure at the forefront of political life for 15 years. Even after retirement, analysts say, he exercised influence — and in his last years, served as a counterweight to China's current leader, Xi Jinping.

Jiang got his break to be party leader in the aftermath of the chaos of the student-led protests centered on Tiananmen Square in 1989. China was a pariah. Jiang was tasked with restoring stability within a divided Communist Party — and rehabilitating the image of a government that had ordered the military to fire on its own citizens.

In a 2000 interview, "a dictator, an authoritarian." And Jiang objected.