http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol ... /article1765490.eceChina denies its finance minister has died
Jane Macartney of The Times, in Beijing
China's government today took the rare step of denying that one of i
ts most senior members had died.
Sources at the 301 military hospital in Beijing had indicated to The
Times that Huang Ju, China’s vice premier in charge of economic re
form, the sixth most powerful official on China's ruling Politburo S
tanding Committee, died this morning at the age of 69 after a prolon
ged battle with pancreatic cancer.
The reports were circulated by the Hong Kong media and reported by a
ll major international news agencies.
Television stations which had been reporting the death were however
forced to issue a hasty retraction after China’s State Council, or
cabinet, dismissed the news.
The State Council said: “It is our understanding that news regardin
g comrade Huang Ju’s death is totally unfounded.”
Sources at the hospital voiced surprise at the denial.
It is not disputed that Mr Huang has been undergoing treatment for c
ancer at the 301 hospital in western Beijing, where most Chinese top
leaders undergo treatment and where paramount leader Deng Xiaoping
died in February 1997
The death of the vice premier in charge of the economy, if confirmed
, would open the way for President Hu Jintao to appoint an ally to f
ill his seat on the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee.
Rumours have swirled for months that Mr Huang was seriously ill, but
his failure to appear at the funeral of Bo Yibo, last surviving lea
der of the Mao Tse-tung generation of leaders, in January, was the c
learest sign that Mr Huang was having difficulty carrying out his of
ficial functions. He appeared briefly at the annual session of the N
ational People’s Congress, or parliament, in March when he voiced h
is support for President Hu. He did not attend the closing session.
The engineering graduate of Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua Universi
ty has spent most of his career in Shanghai, where he was a protégé
and close ally of the former president and Communist Party leader,
Jiang Zemin. His close ties to Mr Jiang have given him a reputation
as a member of Mr Jiang’s “Shanghai clique” in the top echelons o
f the party. President Hu has been gradually trying to build his own
powerbase since he came to power in 2002 by replacing Mr Jiang’s m
en.
The death of Mr Huang would provide the president with an important
opportunity to move one of his own loyalists onto the Politburo Stan
ding Committee – a group of nine men who wield ultimate power in Ch
ina. Mr Huang became a standing committee member in 2002 and is one
of four vice premiers of China.
