Chinese President Xi Jinping and other members of the country's leadership have paid tribute to former President Jiang Zemin, who died last Wednesday. He was 96.

Jiang was appointed General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party by then-supreme leader Deng Xiaoping after the Tiananmen Square incident in June of 1989. Pro-democracy demonstrators were militarily cracked down in the incident.

He promoted economic reforms that involved the introduction of a market economy under socialism.

At a memorial ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday, participants observed a three-minute silent tribute to the late president.

In a speech, Xi praised Jiang's response to the Tiananmen turmoil.

He noted that Jiang defended the nation's dignity and stability when China faced enormous difficulties and pressure from the late 1980s through the early 1990s.

Beijing was on full alert on Tuesday with a huge police presence amid recent protests across China against the government's "zero-COVID" policy. Some protesters have criticized Xi and the Communist Party.

China's state-run media reported that former President Hu Jintao on Monday visited the hospital where Jiang's body was being laid to rest.

The report drew the attention of the foreign media, because it confirmed Hu's whereabouts for the first time in about a month and a half, since he was escorted out of the closing ceremony of the Communist Party's National Congress in October.