President Hu Jintao (L) and Jiang Zemin shake hands at the Fourth Plenum of the 16th CPC Central Committee in Beijing September 19, 2004. At the meeting, Hu succeeded Jiang Zemin as chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China. (Xinhua)

Jiang Zemin (File photo)

    BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC), accepted Jiang Zemin's request to resign from his remaining post as chairman of the Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of China here on Tuesday.

    Approximately 3,000 NPC deputies adopted a resolution to acceptJiang's request of resignation through vote, marking the complete retirement of Jiang, 78, who held the position for 15 years since 1990.

    Jiang submitted his letter of resignation to the presidium of the current NPC annual session Friday. The presidium on Monday adopted a draft resolution to accept his request and decided to submit it to Tuesday's plenum for vote.

    Prior to the vote, NPC deputies had deliberated on Jiang's letter requesting resignation and the draft resolution on accepting the request in panel discussions.

    Jiang's request of resignation "fully displayed his foresight about the development of the cause of the Party and the state," and "his broad-mindedness as a true Communist," a source with the NPC annual session cited deputies as saying.

    Jiang became general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1989 and chairman of the Central Military Commission of the CPC in the same year. He became chairman of the state Central Military Commission in 1990.

    China establishes a chairmanship of the state Central Military Commission, according to its Constitution. Late senior Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping was the first chairman of the state Central Military Commission before being succeeded by Jiang Zemin.

    Deng was both chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission and state Central Military Commission since the position was established in 1982, and it was the same with Jiang.

    Jiang stopped serving as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee in 2002 and president of China in 2003. He resigned fromthe top military post last September and was succeeded by Hu Jintao, who in 2002 was elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and in 2003, president of China.

    In his letter requesting resignation last September, Jiang saidhe "had always looked forward to the complete retirement from leading positions." He proposed Hu Jintao succeed him, which was ratified by the CPC Central Committee.

    The CPC Central Committee said in a communique last year that in the 15 years as he served as chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission, Jiang "grasped the development trends of new military reforms in the world with his great insight" and had enriched the army building ideas.

    "Under his leadership, national defense and army modernization process had achieved tremendous success," said the communique.

    Hu, now 62, became vice-chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission in 1999. He was directly involved in the making of a series of major decisions regarding army building, Jiang Zemin said in his letter.

    Jiang praised Hu Jintao as a "young and energetic" leader with "rich leading experience" and "excellent qualifications" when making the recommendation for succession.

    After becoming chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission,Hu Jintao has pledged to implement Jiang Zemin's thinking of army building and to revolutionize, modernize and standardize the Chinese army.

    In a meeting with top military officers last September following his assumption of the top military job, Hu urged the whole army to uphold Deng Xiaoping Theory and the Important Thought of "Three Represents" as the guiding ideology and conscientiously implement Jiang Zemin's thinking on the building of national defense and the army.

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