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China Pays Its Respects to Late Leader Jiang Zemin

Chinese officials paid their respects Monday to former leader Jiang Zemin - AP
Chinese officials paid their respects Monday to former leader Jiang Zemin - AP
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China Pays Its Respects to Late Leader Jiang Zemin

Chinese officials paid their respects Monday to former leader Jiang Zemin - AP
Chinese officials paid their respects Monday to former leader Jiang Zemin - AP

Sirens wailed out across China at the beginning of a public memorial service for former leader Jiang Zemin on Tuesday, who died last week at the age of 96.

A nationwide three-minute silence was held as part of the formal memorial service.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and other current and previous top officials paid their respects earlier Monday.

State broadcaster CCTV showed Xi, his predecessor Hu Jintao and others bowing to Jiang’s body at a military hospital in Beijing.

Jiang's body was then sent for cremation at Babaoshan cemetery, where many top leaders are interred. He died of leukemia and multiple organ failure Nov. 30 in Shanghai.

Jiang led China out of isolation after the army crushed student-led pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 and supported economic reforms that led to a decade of explosive growth.

He was president for a decade until 2003 and led the ruling Communist Party for 13 years until 2002.

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EU's Kallas: Russia is Posing an Existential Threat to Our Security

Head of the European Defence Agency (EDA) and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas delivers a keynote speech during the EDA Annual Conference 'New Horizons in EU Defence', in Brussels, Belgium, 22 January 2025. EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET
Head of the European Defence Agency (EDA) and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas delivers a keynote speech during the EDA Annual Conference 'New Horizons in EU Defence', in Brussels, Belgium, 22 January 2025. EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET
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EU's Kallas: Russia is Posing an Existential Threat to Our Security

Head of the European Defence Agency (EDA) and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas delivers a keynote speech during the EDA Annual Conference 'New Horizons in EU Defence', in Brussels, Belgium, 22 January 2025. EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET
Head of the European Defence Agency (EDA) and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas delivers a keynote speech during the EDA Annual Conference 'New Horizons in EU Defence', in Brussels, Belgium, 22 January 2025. EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET

Russia is posing an existential threat to the European Union's security and the only way to address that is to increase spending on defense, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Wednesday, adding that the EU had for too long offered Russia alternatives.
"Russia poses an existential threat to our security today, tomorrow and for as long as we underinvest in our defense," she said during a speech at the annual conference of the European Defense Agency (EDA).
"People say I'm a 'Russia hawk'. I think I'm simply realistic about Russia," Reuters quoted Kallas as saying.
Kallas, one of EU's most vocal opponents to Russian President Vladimir Putin, also acknowledged US President Donald Trump was right in saying that EU members don't spend enough on defense.
Trump said earlier this month NATO members should spend 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense – a huge increase from the current 2% goal and a level that no NATO country, including the United States, currently reaches.
"Time is not on Russia's side. But it's not necessarily on ours either. Because we are not yet doing enough. There should be no doubt in any of our minds that we must spend more to prevent war. But we also need to prepare for war," Kallas said.