Refer Report

Wu Bangguo, former chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (equivalent to chairman of the National Assembly), who ranked second in the hierarchy of power during the Hu Jintao era, passed away on the 8th.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the State Council, and the National Committee of the National People’s Political Consultative Conference (CCPP) issued a joint obituary statement on this day and announced that former Chairman Wu died of a chronic illness in Beijing at 4:36 a.m. (local time). He was 84 years old.

Former Chairman Wu, who was born in Feidong, Anhui Province, China in 1941, studied at the Department of Wireless Electronics at Tsinghua University from 1960 to 1967. He began his career as a technician at Shanghai Electronics Tube Factory 3 in 1967, during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), and later worked at the Shanghai Electronics and Electrical Corporation, and from 1983, he served as a standing member and deputy secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China.

The Chinese party and government assessed, “During the Cultural Revolution, he resisted with practical actions while adhering to the principles of party character and seeking facts from facts.” It was also evaluated that the deceased led the development of Shanghai by actively implementing Deng Xiaoping’s spirit of strengthening the South, which led China’s reform and opening. In addition, former Chairman Woo was evaluated as contributing to the re-employment of retired workers from state-owned enterprises and the construction of infrastructure such as the Three Gorges Dam and roads, ports, and railways, which emerged as social problems at the time.

Former Chairman Wu, who used Shanghai as his political base, is considered a representative figure of the ‘Shanghai Bang’ (political and business connections from Shanghai) led by former President Jiang Zemin.

He was appointed Secretary of the Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of China in 1994, during the tenure of former President Jiang, and the following year, he was appointed Vice Premier of the State Council and led the reform of state-owned enterprises. When the Hu Jintao regime was launched, he advanced into the top leadership, becoming chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, officially second in rank (currently third) in 2003, and held the position for 10 years.

The deceased also had an impact on issues on the Korean Peninsula. In 2003, when he was chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, when North Korea refused to return to the negotiating table after the first six-party talks, he met then-President Roh Moo-hyun in Seoul in September and then visited Pyongyang in October. He met with then-Chairman Kim Jong-il of the National Defense Commission and persuaded him by delivering a personal letter from President Hu Jintao, which led to North Korea’s return to the second round of six-party talks (2004).

Source: Korean