Jiang Zemin, a former Chinese president, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 96 from leukemia and organ failure, according to Chinese state media.

The government’s Communist Party, parliament, Cabinet, and military announced Jiang’s passing in a letter to the Chinese people at 12:13 p.m. (0413 GMT) in his hometown of Shanghai, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

“Comrade Jiang Zemin’s death is an incalculable loss to our Party and our military and our people of all ethnic groups,” the letter read, saying the announcement was made with “profound grief”.

It described “our beloved Comrade Jiang Zemin” as an outstanding leader of high prestige, a great Marxist, statesman, military strategist and diplomat and a long-tested communist fighter.

Jiang was plucked from obscurity to head China’s ruling Communist Party after the bloody Tiananmen crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1989, but broke the country out of its subsequent diplomatic isolation, mending fences with the United States and overseeing an unprecedented economic boom.