BEIJING, Aug. 17 -- He died in November 2022, but on Monday Jiang Zemin received the treatment still available to a Chinese Communist Party patriarch: an audience with his successor, a recitation of his virtues, and a hall full of senior officials told to learn from him.

Xi Jinping presided over a grand commemorative gathering at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on August 17 to mark the centenary of Jiang Zemin's birth. Jiang, who led China for fourteen years as general secretary before stepping down in 2002, was born on August 17, 1926. The language Xi chose to frame the occasion was equally precise.

"Jiang made indelible contributions to safeguarding the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics," Xi said, in remark...