Huang Ju

Huang Ju 黄菊
File:Huangju.jpg
Mayor of Shanghai
In office 1991–1994
Preceded by	Zhu Rongji
Succeeded by	Xu Kuangdi
Personal details
Born	200px September 1938 Jiashan, Zhejiang
Died	2 June 2007
Resting place	200px
Nationality	Chinese
Political party	Communist Party of China
Spouse	Yu Huiwen
Parent	200px

Template:Chinese name Huang Ju (Chinese:黄菊, Pinyin: Huáng Jú) (September 1938 - 2 June 2007) was the Executive Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China. He joined the Communist Party of China in May 1963. He was ranked 6th out of 9, and arguably the least popular member in the Politburo Standing Committee of the Party. Huang, considered "one of China's most mysterious politicians", was a powerful member of the "Shanghai clique".

Enjoying very close relations with his patron Jiang Zemin, he was known to be strongly opposed to President Hu Jintao. Recently, however, Huang fell in standing and was considered likely to retire soon from official life. The State Council denied reports that Huang Ju died on May 9, 2007.

Education

Born in Jiashan, Zhejiang Province (浙江嘉善) as Huang Deyu (黄德钰), Huang attended Tsinghua University (清华大学) in 1956-63 where he graduated in Electrical Engineering.

Career

Huang was employed as a Technician in the foundry section of the Shanghai Building Board Machine Factory (上海人造板机器厂) from 1963 to 1967. From 1967 to 1977, Huang worked as Technician in the power section of the Shanghai China Smelter Factory (上海中华冶金厂), where he was also Assistant Deputy Secretary Workshop Party Branch. He became Assistant Director of the Revolutionary Committee, Deputy Plant Manager, Engineer from 1977 to 1980. He was Assistant Manager of the Shanghai Petrochemical General Machinery Company (上海市石化通用机械制造公司) from 1980 to 1982. From 1982 to 1983 he was Assistant Commissioner of the Shanghai First Mechanical and Electrical Industry Bureau (上海市第一机电工业局).

From 1983 to 1984, he was Shanghai Municipal Party Committee member and City Industry Work Party Secretary; Shanghai Municipal Party Committee member, its Secretary General from 1984 to 1985 and its Assistant Deputy Secretary from 1985 to 1986.

In 1987, Huang became one of the chosen candidates for the Mayor of Shanghai, and therefore a CCP Central Committee member, but he was embarrassed by the low number of votes supporting his candidacy in Shanghai's Municipal Congress. Huang therefore did not become Mayor and Zhu Rongji was subsequently elected Mayor in his place. When Zhu became Premier after his transfer to the Central Government in Beijing, Huang became mayor of Shanghai in 1991 and then city's Party chief in 1994, which he served until October 2002. Although he led the eastern commercial hub in a continuous era of prosperity and development, he is known to have achieved fairly little in Shanghai, and served in a role to keep the city's party organization in line. Due to his extremely low popularity inside the party and in the public eye, Huang's move to Beijing after Jiang Zemin's retirement in 2002 was subject to great controversy.

Controversy and moving to the Centre

He was criticized by political rivals in February 1995, when his daughter, Huang Fan (黄凡), married Fang Yiwei (方以伟), the son of Fang Dachuan (方大川), a pro-Taiwan newspaperman in San Francisco.

Huang is widely believed to be implicated in the Shanghai real estate scandals involving Zhou Zhengyi, one of Shanghai's big-name business elites. Huang did little to stop monopolies in Shanghai's booming real estate sector, and there was some discontent and public protests resulted from in residents being evicted from their homes (with little or no compensation) to make way for new construction. Zhou Zhengyi was eventually charged with multiple counts of fraud, but was only sentenced to three years in prison, which analysts speculated was largely due to Huang's exerting his influence on the municipal courts. In addition, Huang's wife controlled a government fund which recklessly spent taxpayer's money in private matters.

Huang was one of the patronage appointments from Jiang's Shanghai clique to China's top making decision body, becoming one of the nine members of the Politburo Standing Committee. He is the Politburo leader who received the fewest votes in favourHe received just 1,455 out of 2,074 votes for membership to the Politburo, and obtained over 300 votes against his confirmation for the CCP Politburo (which was, considered by many political analysts, as a rejection in effect). Huang is widely regarded as being unremarkable as a leader and lacking an impressive track record, owing his rise to power solely to the patronage of Jiang, and various political schemes. He is the least popular of the 9 politburo members, and does not have many policies attributed to his name.

His position as Executive Vice-Premier is considered largely a figurehead role and has very little power, especially when compared to previous Executive Vice-Premiers Yao Yilin and Li Lanqing. His official portfolios are to oversee finance and banking.

Although the national media stressed his return, Huang is believed to be next in the firing line in the corruption probe after the dismissal of his close colleague Chen Liangyu in September 2006. Huang's involvement with the Shanghai Pension Fund Scandals is unclear, as the Chinese government has thus far kept much of the investigation under wraps. It is likely, however, that Huang is connected to the case.

As one of the China's most partisan politicians, his departure would be seen by analysts as a further shift in the balance of power away from Jiang Zemin in favour of Hu Jintao.

State of health

Alleged illness

In February 2006, Huang was reportedly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer by South China Morning Post, and was expected to step down. However, official sources, which initially refused to comment on Huang's mysterious disappearance from public affairs, later chose to comment that Huang was recovering from an undisclosed illness, inadvertently proving his ill condition. No reports were confirmed, and state media had no mention of Huang since his last January appearance. He was absent from the 2006 NPC session. On 17 March, sources reported that he was near death . Nevertheless, some sources suggest his sudden disappearance from the public may also be the result of an internal power struggle, where Huang was purged to make way for Hu and Wen loyalists.

He has since then made a return to the public scene, attending a Science and Technology forum in Beijing on June 5, 2006. Huang subsequently appeared fairly worn, ill, and stressed in front of the cameras.

Huang gave a keynote speech at the State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) executives' conference on January 5, 2007, but was notably absent later on that month at the Central Conference on Financial Affairs, a conference which is under his portfolio. Huang has been physically absent from Chinese media intermittently for several months. Although his condolences were accounted for, rank-appropriate, during Communist elder Bo Yibo's funeral, his absence prompted speculation that Huang's critical condition was preventing him from carrying out his official duties. Hong Kong media speculated that Huang is undergoing treatment in Shanghai. Huang reappeared, looking very frail, during the National People's Congress in March 2007.

It is widely speculated that Huang has already requested Beijing for a resignation, and currently his positions are purely ceremonial. He had reportedly handed over his role of oversight of Financial Affairs portfolio to premier Wen Jiabao in January. It had been expected that Huang would retire by the 17th Party Congress in late 2007, where there will be a major reshuffle of posts of party apparatchiks.

Official sources reported no significant events of Huang in the period from January to November 2006, and has not reported any Huang-related events since March 7, 2007, when he attended a panel discussion with legislators from Shanghai.

Huang was reported, at the end of April 2007, to have left Shanghai, and had been admitted to the 301 Military Hospital in Beijing to receive treatment. There were further reports on May 8 that his condition had deteriorated.

Alleged death

Citing sources inside the 301 Military Hospital in Beijing, The Times reported that he had died on the morning of May 9, 2007, and the next day noted the "surprise" of its source in the hospital at the State council's denial. Reports were widely circulated . Phoenix Television was the only Chinese station to broadcast the news, did so on its on-screen ticker from about 19h00. However, at 19h30, the State Council denied reports that Huang Ju died. Phoenix retracted and issued an apology at around 20h00. It was reported that the south-west wing of the 301 military hospital had been completely closed off; all media were reminded that official news would be disseminated by Xinhua, and that all websites were to strictly observe editorial guidance from the official news agency.

Political agenda

Analysts believe that the health of top officials has always been a historical tradition in China, so that any possible political instability is avoided.

There is some speculation as to the political motivations of the Phoenix Television disclosure: on one hand, the station is a News Corporation affiliate with strong viewership in Guangdong province. Phoenix, which sees itself as a pioneer of press freedom in China, continues to push against the reporting controls on media imposed by the state. On the other hand, leaders in the politically rebellious province would likely gain an advantage in the powerplay to preserve the status quo.

Death

On 2 June 2007, Xinhua reported that Huang had died of an unnamed illness at age 69.

See also

• Politics of the People's Republic of China

External links

• biography @ Biography, ChinaVitae.com