Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng led senior officials in observing three minutes of silence, while sirens wailed and government vessels and vehicles honked their horns as Macau mourned the passing of former president Jiang Zemin yesterday.
A memorial meeting for Comrade Jiang was held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing yesterday morning. President Xi Jinping delivered a eulogy at the meeting.
As a mark of respect for Jiang, Ho headed a delegation of government officials to watch at the China-Portuguese-speaking Countries Commercial and Trade Service Platform Complex a relay of the live broadcast of the memorial meeting, and to observe a three-minute silent tribute to the late leader, who passed away in Shanghai last Wednesday, aged 96.
According to a statement by the Macau Government Information Bureau (GCS), the chief executive’s delegation consisted of more than 260 officials, including principal officials, members of the Executive Council, and bureau directors.
Deputies to the Legislative Assembly (AL), as well as judges, public prosecutors and other Judiciary staff members also watched the live broadcast of the memorial meeting in Beijing and observed the three-minute silence. Civil servants and other government employees also observed the three-minute silence in line with the memorial meeting.
Government vessels and vehicles sounded their horns and the city’s sirens on various hilltops wailed for three minutes to pay tribute to Jiang, who oversaw Macau’s reversion from Portuguese to Chinese administration and the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) in December 1999. Jiang paid an inspection visit to the MSAR in 2000.
The memorial meeting in Beijing was telecast live by public broadcaster TDM so that the local population could watch the event along with the compatriots across the whole nation.
All national and regional flags were flown at half-mast yesterday at public buildings, including offices of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) outside the city such as in Beijing, Lisbon and Brussels.
All entertainment and celebratory activities organised or funded by the government that had been scheduled for yesterday were suspended.
A large number of local community and business associations and civic organisations as well as schools and tertiary education institutions organised their own events to watch the memorial meeting and to pay the three-minute silent tribute to Jiang.
Liaison Office staff watch live broadcast
Meanwhile, the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the MSAR gathered its staff members in the main hall of its headquarters in Zape to watch the memorial meeting and to pay the three-minute silent tribute to Jiang.
A statement by the Liaison Office pointed out that everyone deeply cherishes the memory of Comrade Jiang’s outstanding feats. The statement expressed the staff members’ great sorrow for Jiang’s passing. The statement also said that all Liaison Office staff are determined to unite more closely around the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, turn grief into strength… and turn the mourning for Comrade Jiang Zemin into practical action to implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the CPC.
The statement stressed that the successful practice of One Country, Two Systems with Macau characteristics “will make even greater contributions to the realisation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng leads a delegation of 260 principal and senior government officials at the China-Portuguese-speaking Countries Commercial and Trade Service Platform Complex yesterday morning in observing a three-minute silent tribute to the nation’s late leader Jiang Zemin and watching a live broadcast of a memorial meeting for Jiang in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. – Photo: GCS
Staff members of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) watch a live broadcast of a memorial service in Beijing for Comrade Jiang Zemin, at the headquarters of the office in Zape yesterday morning. – Photo courtesy of Liaison Office
Members of the Macau Legislative Assembly watch the live broadcast of the memorial meeting for Comrade Jiang Zemin and pay a three-minute silent tribute to the national late leader, at the legislature yesterday morning. – Photo: GCS
