Genshin Impact, Other Games to Suspend Services in China on Dec 6 to Mourn Jiang Zemin

Former Chinese president Jiang Zemin passed away following a battle with leukemia on November 30, at the age of 96. Authorities later announced that they will hold a memorial service in Beijing on the morning of December 6, and that public entertainment activities should be suspended for the day. Major Chinese games have announced that they will suspend services, including miHoYo’s “Genshin Impact,” Tencent‘s “Honor of Kings” and “League of Legends,” NetEase‘s “Identity V,” and others. Universal Studios Beijing also announced that it will close for the day.

The People’s Bank of China announced that during the silence of Jiang Zemin’s memorial service on the morning of December 6, all inter-bank bond markets, money markets, foreign exchange markets, bill markets and gold markets will temporarily stop trading for three minutes. The China Securities Regulatory Commission also stated that during the period, the securities and futures market will be temporarily closed for three minutes, and that trading will resume after the period of silence.

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Regarding the matter, one Chinese web user commented, “Under such special circumstances, all games and entertainment activities should be suspended for one day, which is normal to understand.” Another wrote, “We should not forget history and heroes.”

Jiang Zemin was born on August 17, 1926 in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, and graduated from the Electrical Engineering Department of National Chiao Tung University (now Shanghai Jiaotong University). From 1989 to 2002, he served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and President of China from 1993 to 2003.

During his tenure as party and state leader, Jiang Zemin devoted himself to promoting China’s diplomacy, including two visits to the United States in a bid to shore up Sino-US relations. His first visit to the United States as head of state was in 1997, and another visit by the then president to the United States took place 12 years later. Jiang held talks with then US President Bill Clinton, successfully promoting the two countries to reach a strategic partnership.

Jiang Zemin also devoted himself to promoting long-term reform, directly participating in the establishment and planning of China’s special economic zones in the early and mid-1980s. Faced with high inflation from 1995 to 1996 and the challenges brought by the Asian financial crisis in 1997, Jiang helped to keep China stable and promote reform and opening up. Together with then Premier Zhu Rongji, he achieved the major milestone of getting China to join the World Trade Organization in 2001. This has “set an important track” for China’s reform and opening up and sustained economic growth.