Colleagues remember little of 'hard-working student'

Mr Jiang plans to meet a former classmate and a professor from his Shanghai student days when he visits Philadelphia - although both have difficulty recalling him.

Professor Gu Yuxiu, 96, said: 'I can't remember much about him. It is over 50 years ago. I certainly did not know he was a communist and was working in the underground.' Retired Professor Sun Hun who, like Professor Gu, taught electrical engineering at Philadelphia's Drexel University, recalled: 'Jiang was very quiet and studied very hard. He was a good student and Jiaotong University was very tough to get into.

'A lot of students at the time took part in demonstrations. Jiang was not one of them.' Professor Sun and Mr Jiang were part of a class of 60 which graduated in June 1946. They were taught calculus for three hours on Saturday mornings by Professor Gu during the final six months of their studies.

Professor Gu was Shanghai's deputy minister of education under the Kuomintang and moved to its wartime capital in Chongqing before returning to Shanghai.

Neither professor can recall whether Jiang was among the students who moved with the university to Chongqing or stayed on under Japanese occupation.

'He was not among the 20 students who stayed on in Shanghai or I would have known him better,' Professor Sun said.