Qian Xuantong ( was a linguist. Born as Qian Xia , he had the courtesy name Deqian .
Born in Huzhou, Zhejiang, Qian was trained in traditional Chinese philology. After receiving his university education in Japan, Qian held a number of teaching positions in mainland China. He was a student of Zhang Binglin; some of Zhang's works were copied and printed in Qian's remarkable seal script handwriting. As a philologist, Qian was the first to reconstruct the vowel system of Old Chinese in .
A close friend of Lu Xun, Qian was a key figure in the May Fourth Movement. Despite his close relationship with the Chinese classics, he promoted the abolition of not only classical Chinese, but also of Chinese characters. He was also a strong supporter of Esperanto, at one time even proposed the substitution of Chinese by it. He and Liu Bannong did their best to promote vernacular Chinese, attacking such classical Chinese stylists as Lin Shu. His skepticism of the Chinese heritage was such that he at one time wanted to change his surname to Yi Gu . He also did many important works for the standardization of Simplified Chinese character and of , and for the design of pinyin.
His son Qian Sanqiang was a who contributed to development of nuclear weapons in China.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Meng Guanliang
Meng Guanliang is a . He won the C-2 500 m gold medal at the .
Meng became Chinese champion for the first time at the age of twenty. He has won a total of five gold medals at the Asian Championships .
His best world championship performance came in 2003 in , USA. Meng reached two individual finals, finishing in fifth place in the C1 500 m and sixth in the 200 m.
For the 2004 season he formed a C2 partnership with Yang Wenjun. On their first international appearance together in , Japan, they shocked observers by posting a 500m time of 1:40.27. Then, in June, they won a World Cup race in Duisburg to establish themselves as one of the favourites for an Olympic medal.
At the , they were drawn in the toughest heat alongside all the main medal contenders. They won the heat in a time of 1:38.916, almost a full second ahead of Cubans and . The final was much closer with less than a second separating the first eight contenders but Meng and Yang again headed the Cuban pair to win the gold medal - China's first in the sport.
Meng is 182 cm tall and weighs 88 kg .
Meng became Chinese champion for the first time at the age of twenty. He has won a total of five gold medals at the Asian Championships .
His best world championship performance came in 2003 in , USA. Meng reached two individual finals, finishing in fifth place in the C1 500 m and sixth in the 200 m.
For the 2004 season he formed a C2 partnership with Yang Wenjun. On their first international appearance together in , Japan, they shocked observers by posting a 500m time of 1:40.27. Then, in June, they won a World Cup race in Duisburg to establish themselves as one of the favourites for an Olympic medal.
At the , they were drawn in the toughest heat alongside all the main medal contenders. They won the heat in a time of 1:38.916, almost a full second ahead of Cubans and . The final was much closer with less than a second separating the first eight contenders but Meng and Yang again headed the Cuban pair to win the gold medal - China's first in the sport.
Meng is 182 cm tall and weighs 88 kg .
Ma Yinchu
Ma Yinchu was a prominent economist.
Ma Yinchu was born in what is now Shengzhou City, a county-level city that is administered by Shaoxing, in northeastern Zhejiang province. He was the fifth child of the owner of a small distillery that specialized in fermented rice liquor. While his father wished for him to carry on this business, Ma showed an inclination toward scholarship. As a result, his father cut him off financially, and their relationship never recovered. At 16, Ma attended middle school in Shanghai. Despite losing his father's support, he studied mining and metallurgy at Beiyang University . In 1907, Ma received government sponsorship to study economics at Yale University, after which he received a in economics and philosophy from Columbia University in 1914. In 1920 he helped to found the Shanghai College of Commerce, and in 1923 he became the founding president of the Chinese Economics Society. During the 1930s, Ma began to criticize the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek, and was subsequently placed under house arrest from 1940–2. In 1949, at the request of Zhou Enlai, he served as a nonpartisan delegate to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. From 1950 to 1951, he served as the president of Zhejiang University, and then as the president of Peking University from 1951 to 1960. In this position, Ma was well-liked, and seen as warm and genuine by his students. However, he was removed due to his unorthodox economic views.
In June 1957, at the fourth session of the First National People's Congress, Ma presented his New Population Theory. Having examined trends of the early 1950s, he concluded that further population growth at such high rates would be detrimental to China's development. Therefore, he advocated government control of fertility. During the following three years, Ma's theory suffered two rounds of attacks, and he was dismissed from public life. The charges of the government were that the theory followed Malthusianism, attempted to discredit the superiority of socialism, and showed contempt for the people.
Ma's New Population Theory did not receive mention in the People's Daily again until June 5 1979. On July 26 of the same year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China formally apologized to him, stating that events had validated his theory. In September 1979, all charges against him were retracted, and he was made honorary president of Peking University. Ma Yinchu died on May 10 1982 due to and lung disease and pneumonia.
Even before Ma's death, scholars were realizing the enormity of the government's error in censoring his views for two decades. This view can be demonstrated by the title of a newspaper article published in 1979: "Erroneously criticized one person, population mistakenly increased 300,000,000". Ma's theory also became enshrined in public policy; China's One Child Policy draws heavily on Ma's reasoning that "the State should have the power to intervene in reproduction and to control population", and follows his advice in heavily utilizing propaganda on the dangers of population growth. In Ma's hometown, a middle school has been named in his honor. His birth home is being renovated as a museum, and the street on which it resides is now called "Famous Man Street". Nationally, the scholar is featured prominently in primary and middle school textbooks as "Uncle Ma", where he is praised for his contributions to population control and environmental protection. In 1997, a nine-part series about his life was aired in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the publication of his population theory.
Biography
Early life
Ma Yinchu was born in what is now Shengzhou City, a county-level city that is administered by Shaoxing, in northeastern Zhejiang province. He was the fifth child of the owner of a small distillery that specialized in fermented rice liquor. While his father wished for him to carry on this business, Ma showed an inclination toward scholarship. As a result, his father cut him off financially, and their relationship never recovered. At 16, Ma attended middle school in Shanghai. Despite losing his father's support, he studied mining and metallurgy at Beiyang University . In 1907, Ma received government sponsorship to study economics at Yale University, after which he received a in economics and philosophy from Columbia University in 1914. In 1920 he helped to found the Shanghai College of Commerce, and in 1923 he became the founding president of the Chinese Economics Society. During the 1930s, Ma began to criticize the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek, and was subsequently placed under house arrest from 1940–2. In 1949, at the request of Zhou Enlai, he served as a nonpartisan delegate to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. From 1950 to 1951, he served as the president of Zhejiang University, and then as the president of Peking University from 1951 to 1960. In this position, Ma was well-liked, and seen as warm and genuine by his students. However, he was removed due to his unorthodox economic views.
New Population Theory
In June 1957, at the fourth session of the First National People's Congress, Ma presented his New Population Theory. Having examined trends of the early 1950s, he concluded that further population growth at such high rates would be detrimental to China's development. Therefore, he advocated government control of fertility. During the following three years, Ma's theory suffered two rounds of attacks, and he was dismissed from public life. The charges of the government were that the theory followed Malthusianism, attempted to discredit the superiority of socialism, and showed contempt for the people.
Rehabilitation and later life
Ma's New Population Theory did not receive mention in the People's Daily again until June 5 1979. On July 26 of the same year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China formally apologized to him, stating that events had validated his theory. In September 1979, all charges against him were retracted, and he was made honorary president of Peking University. Ma Yinchu died on May 10 1982 due to and lung disease and pneumonia.
Legacy
Even before Ma's death, scholars were realizing the enormity of the government's error in censoring his views for two decades. This view can be demonstrated by the title of a newspaper article published in 1979: "Erroneously criticized one person, population mistakenly increased 300,000,000". Ma's theory also became enshrined in public policy; China's One Child Policy draws heavily on Ma's reasoning that "the State should have the power to intervene in reproduction and to control population", and follows his advice in heavily utilizing propaganda on the dangers of population growth. In Ma's hometown, a middle school has been named in his honor. His birth home is being renovated as a museum, and the street on which it resides is now called "Famous Man Street". Nationally, the scholar is featured prominently in primary and middle school textbooks as "Uncle Ma", where he is praised for his contributions to population control and environmental protection. In 1997, a nine-part series about his life was aired in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the publication of his population theory.
Luo Jialun
Luo Jialun was a Chinese educator, historian and political activist. He was one of the leaders of the May Fourth Movement in 1919.
Luo got his bachelor degree from Peking University.In September, 1928, Luo was appointed the president of Tsinghua University and resigned in May, 1930.
Luo got his bachelor degree from Peking University.In September, 1928, Luo was appointed the president of Tsinghua University and resigned in May, 1930.
Jack Ma
Jack Ma is founder and chief operating officer of Alibaba Group.
Born in the city of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, Ma graduated from Hangzhou Teacher's Institute in 1988 and became a lecturer in English and International Trade in the same university.
Ma first started building websites for Chinese companies with the help of friends in the US. Ma has commented that "The day we got connected to the Web, I invited friends and TV people over to my house," and on a very slow dial-up connection, "we waited three and a half hours and got half a page.... We drank, watched TV and played cards, waiting. But I was so proud. I proved the Internet existed."
After a stint as head of the China International Electronic Commerce Center's Infoshare division, he founded Alibaba.com in 1999, a China-based business to business marketplace site which serves 12 million members from 200 countries.
In 2003, Alibaba launched Taobao.com, a consumer to consumer auction website similar to eBay, which also provided an innovative escrow-based online payment service, Alipay .
Ma remains as chief executive officer and chairman of board after Yahoo! acquired a 40% economic stake in Alibaba in exchange for $1 Billion USD plus all of Yahoo!'s Chinese-based assets , on August 11, 2005. Japan's Softbank will have a 27.4% in the new Alibaba company.
On 2007-06-11, at a press conference at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Hong Kong, called to discuss the highly successful Hong Kong Stock Exchange IPO, when asked whether Alibaba was an ethical trading company, Ma responded by announcing to the assembled journalists - and reiterating when queried - that he and his family have "sworn off Shark Fin Soup now and forever" , which he said was a result of finding out what the problems are.
Biography
Born in the city of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, Ma graduated from Hangzhou Teacher's Institute in 1988 and became a lecturer in English and International Trade in the same university.
Ma first started building websites for Chinese companies with the help of friends in the US. Ma has commented that "The day we got connected to the Web, I invited friends and TV people over to my house," and on a very slow dial-up connection, "we waited three and a half hours and got half a page.... We drank, watched TV and played cards, waiting. But I was so proud. I proved the Internet existed."
After a stint as head of the China International Electronic Commerce Center's Infoshare division, he founded Alibaba.com in 1999, a China-based business to business marketplace site which serves 12 million members from 200 countries.
In 2003, Alibaba launched Taobao.com, a consumer to consumer auction website similar to eBay, which also provided an innovative escrow-based online payment service, Alipay .
Ma remains as chief executive officer and chairman of board after Yahoo! acquired a 40% economic stake in Alibaba in exchange for $1 Billion USD plus all of Yahoo!'s Chinese-based assets , on August 11, 2005. Japan's Softbank will have a 27.4% in the new Alibaba company.
On 2007-06-11, at a press conference at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Hong Kong, called to discuss the highly successful Hong Kong Stock Exchange IPO, when asked whether Alibaba was an ethical trading company, Ma responded by announcing to the assembled journalists - and reiterating when queried - that he and his family have "sworn off Shark Fin Soup now and forever" , which he said was a result of finding out what the problems are.
Huang Ju
Huang Ju was the Executive Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China. He joined the Communist Party of China in March 1966. He was , and was one of the least popular and most partisan members of the of the . Huang, considered "one of China's most mysterious politicians", was a powerful member of the Shanghai clique.
Having been both the Mayor of Shanghai and the city's party chief in the 1990s, Huang enjoyed very close relations with his patron Jiang Zemin, he was known to be strongly opposed to President Hu Jintao. During his tenure in Shanghai Huang and his family members were involved in various corruption cases. He died in office on 2 June 2007.
Born in , as Huang Deyu , Huang attended Tsinghua University in 1956-63 where he graduated in Electrical Engineering.
Huang was employed as a Technician in the foundry section of the Shanghai Artificial-board Machinery Factory from 1963 to 1967. From 1967 to 1977, Huang worked as Technician in the power section of the Shanghai Zhonghua Metallurgical Factory , 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 from 1980 to 1982. From 1982 to 1983 he was Deputy Commissioner of the Shanghai First Mechanical and Electrical Industry Bureau .
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. Huang was, however, the inventor of a string of themed property developments within Greater Shanghai which were carbon copies of famous European cities. For example, Thames Town in Songjiang, outside Shanghai city proper, built to imitate a British market town.
Huang served in a role to keep the city's party organization in line, and is remembered for by some as having raised the salary levels of Shanghai people. Among recent ex-mayors of Shanghai, Huang was also the least popular, due to his suppression of popular mayor Xu Kuangdi. Huang's reputation in the city is incomparable to that of Zhu Rongji or even Chen Liangyu, and had a very negative image.
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.
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 to make way for new construction. Zhou 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, Yu Huiwen, controlled the Shanghai pension fund, and was linked to Zhang Rongkun, who was at the centre of allegations of misappropriation of the fund's money. Huang's brother, who was made a high-ranking executive of a Pudong development firm, moved funds for personal uses.
Huang was one of the patronage appointments from Jiang's Shanghai clique to China's top decision-making body, becoming one of the nine members of the Politburo Standing Committee. He received the lowest number of votes among the Politburo members elected in 2002. He received just 1,455 votes in favour, out of 2,074 votes cast, but 300 votes against; this unusually low affirmation ratio is considered by many political analysts as a rejection in effect.
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.
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.
In February 2006, the South China Morning Post reported that Huang was seriously ill, and was expected to step down. Although some government officials said that he had pancreatic cancer, the party never officially disclosed the nature of his condition. In stating that Huang was recovering from an undisclosed illness, official sources inadvertently revealed that he was ill. 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 suggested his sudden disappearance from the public might also have been the result of an internal power struggle, in which Huang was purged to make way for and loyalists.
Huang attended a Science and Technology forum in Beijing on 5 June 2006, which some suggest was for the sole purpose of letting the public know that he was still alive and well.
After giving a keynote speech at the State-Owned Enterprise executives' conference on 5 January 2007, he was notably absent at the Central Conference on Financial Affairs later on that month. 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 was undergoing treatment in Shanghai. Huang reappeared, looking very frail, during the in March 2007.
It was widely speculated that Huang had already requested to be allowed to resign by March 2007, and that afterwards his normally powerful position became 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 formally retire by the in November 2007, where there would be a major reshuffle of posts of party apparatus.
Official sources reported no significant events after he attended a panel discussion with legislators from Shanghai on 7 March 2007.
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 8 May that his condition had deteriorated.
Citing sources inside the 301 Military Hospital in Beijing, The Times reported that he had died on the morning of 9 May 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 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 , and that all websites were to strictly observe editorial guidance from the official news agency.
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 viewer base 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.
Analysts believe that traditional secrecy in China over the health of top officials has always existed so that any possible political instability is avoided. Rumours of Huang's death, which had circulated 3 times before the formal Xinhua announcement, had been used as excuses for venting anger at social and political problems. The timing of the death is particularly sensitive due to the forthcoming anniversary of the Tiananmen protests of 1989.
On 29 May, Huang was elected as one of Shanghai's local party representatives to the Party's 17th Party Congress to be held in November 2007.
On 2 June 2007, Huang's death in Beijing was announced. Unprecedentedly, the English and Chinese versions of his obituary were relayed simultaneously to the country and the world only a few hours after his death, at around 6:30AM Beijing time. His death was the top story on the National News program at 7PM, where news anchor in black suits read off the 155 word dry and sober obituary, and no evaluation of his legacy. The screen simply displayed "Comrade Huang Ju has passed away." Official Chinese news agency reported that Huang had died at 2:03AM, of an unnamed illness, at age 69.
In his concise official obituary, which was the top story on all Chinese news websites, he was hailed as a "long-tested and faithful Communist fighter and an outstanding leader of the party and the state." Many believe this to be contrary to how he is regarded within the party and by the general public, but is rather a political means to "calm the storm" before the 17th Party Congress of the Communist Party is held in November 2007.
Websites reporting Huang Ju's death have disallowed discussions on the issue, and internet forums have censored all negative comments and speculation about Huang Ju's political life. In Shanghai, where Huang is most well known as the city's former Mayor, reception of his death has been very cold . Among the mayors of Shanghai, Huang has received the lowest ratings, while his contemporaries, Zhu Rongji and Xu Kuangdi, were generally liked by the public. As a result Shanghai has not seen any public displays of mourning.
Huang was the first member to die in office since Chairman Mao Zedong in September 1976, some thirty years earlier, and the highest ranking communist leader to die in office since economic reforms began in 1978. He is the only Executive Vice-Premier ever to die in office.
Huang's funeral was the highest-ranking affair for any Communist leader since Deng Xiaoping's state funeral in 1997. It was the top story on CCTV's National News at 7PM on 5 June 2007, and occupied well over ten minutes of broadcast time in the half-hour program. Despite its priority and importance, however, Huang's funeral was noticeably simpler than that of previous leaders. The official "funeral" designation for deceased leaders was not used; rather, it was termed a "Send-off ceremony" . Analysts suggest that this may become the new trend for Chinese leaders. Huang's legacy was evaluated very highly in the official state media, which called him an "important member of the Central Committee Leadership under General Secretary Hu Jintao who dedicated his heart to the development of the Party and the State, and offered all of his intellectual strength and power for the cause." Noticeably, former President Jiang Zemin, in official footage, was in tears as he shook the hands of Huang's widow Yu Huiwen . Interestingly, the funeral coverage began with Zeng Qinghong standing at the hospital awaiting Huang Ju's funeral procession, and not with Hu Jintao. All Chinese leaders, including former Premier Zhu Rongji, attended the ceremony.
Huang's death also opens a vacancy which preludes the possible installation of a Hu Jintao ally into the positions of Politburo Standing Committee member, as well as Executive Vice-Premier, making the transition to a consolidated Hu Jintao government more likely later this year in the 17th Party Congress.
According to most observers, Huang's death would have little effect on Chinese politics, largely because Huang had been out of the public scene for over a year prior to his death, and the news was long expected. Huang's departure is nevertheless seen as a major blow to the "Shanghai Clique", loyal to former President Jiang Zemin, who has been involved in a constant power struggle with Hu Jintao. Huang, along with disgraced Shanghai Party Chief Chen Liangyu who is currently undergoing investigation for charges of fraud and corruption, were both staunch opponents of Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao.
Huang was married to Yu Huiwen , who was an executive on a Shanghai Pensions board, and believed to be involved in corruption cases in the city. In February 1995, his daughter, Huang Fan , married Fang Yiwei , the son of Fang Dachuan , a pro-Taiwan newspaperman in San Francisco, for which Huang was criticized by political rivals.
Having been both the Mayor of Shanghai and the city's party chief in the 1990s, Huang enjoyed very close relations with his patron Jiang Zemin, he was known to be strongly opposed to President Hu Jintao. During his tenure in Shanghai Huang and his family members were involved in various corruption cases. He died in office on 2 June 2007.
Biography
Education
Born in , as Huang Deyu , Huang attended Tsinghua University in 1956-63 where he graduated in Electrical Engineering.
Career
Huang was employed as a Technician in the foundry section of the Shanghai Artificial-board Machinery Factory from 1963 to 1967. From 1967 to 1977, Huang worked as Technician in the power section of the Shanghai Zhonghua Metallurgical Factory , 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 from 1980 to 1982. From 1982 to 1983 he was Deputy Commissioner of the Shanghai First Mechanical and Electrical Industry Bureau .
Time in Shanghai
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. Huang was, however, the inventor of a string of themed property developments within Greater Shanghai which were carbon copies of famous European cities. For example, Thames Town in Songjiang, outside Shanghai city proper, built to imitate a British market town.
Huang served in a role to keep the city's party organization in line, and is remembered for by some as having raised the salary levels of Shanghai people. Among recent ex-mayors of Shanghai, Huang was also the least popular, due to his suppression of popular mayor Xu Kuangdi. Huang's reputation in the city is incomparable to that of Zhu Rongji or even Chen Liangyu, and had a very negative image.
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.
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 to make way for new construction. Zhou 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, Yu Huiwen, controlled the Shanghai pension fund, and was linked to Zhang Rongkun, who was at the centre of allegations of misappropriation of the fund's money. Huang's brother, who was made a high-ranking executive of a Pudong development firm, moved funds for personal uses.
National politics
Huang was one of the patronage appointments from Jiang's Shanghai clique to China's top decision-making body, becoming one of the nine members of the Politburo Standing Committee. He received the lowest number of votes among the Politburo members elected in 2002. He received just 1,455 votes in favour, out of 2,074 votes cast, but 300 votes against; this unusually low affirmation ratio is considered by many political analysts as a rejection in effect.
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.
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
Illness
In February 2006, the South China Morning Post reported that Huang was seriously ill, and was expected to step down. Although some government officials said that he had pancreatic cancer, the party never officially disclosed the nature of his condition. In stating that Huang was recovering from an undisclosed illness, official sources inadvertently revealed that he was ill. 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 suggested his sudden disappearance from the public might also have been the result of an internal power struggle, in which Huang was purged to make way for and loyalists.
Huang attended a Science and Technology forum in Beijing on 5 June 2006, which some suggest was for the sole purpose of letting the public know that he was still alive and well.
After giving a keynote speech at the State-Owned Enterprise executives' conference on 5 January 2007, he was notably absent at the Central Conference on Financial Affairs later on that month. 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 was undergoing treatment in Shanghai. Huang reappeared, looking very frail, during the in March 2007.
It was widely speculated that Huang had already requested to be allowed to resign by March 2007, and that afterwards his normally powerful position became 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 formally retire by the in November 2007, where there would be a major reshuffle of posts of party apparatus.
Official sources reported no significant events after he attended a panel discussion with legislators from Shanghai on 7 March 2007.
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 8 May that his condition had deteriorated.
False media reports
Citing sources inside the 301 Military Hospital in Beijing, The Times reported that he had died on the morning of 9 May 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 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 , and that all websites were to strictly observe editorial guidance from the official news agency.
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 viewer base 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.
Analysts believe that traditional secrecy in China over the health of top officials has always existed so that any possible political instability is avoided. Rumours of Huang's death, which had circulated 3 times before the formal Xinhua announcement, had been used as excuses for venting anger at social and political problems. The timing of the death is particularly sensitive due to the forthcoming anniversary of the Tiananmen protests of 1989.
Death
On 29 May, Huang was elected as one of Shanghai's local party representatives to the Party's 17th Party Congress to be held in November 2007.
On 2 June 2007, Huang's death in Beijing was announced. Unprecedentedly, the English and Chinese versions of his obituary were relayed simultaneously to the country and the world only a few hours after his death, at around 6:30AM Beijing time. His death was the top story on the National News program at 7PM, where news anchor in black suits read off the 155 word dry and sober obituary, and no evaluation of his legacy. The screen simply displayed "Comrade Huang Ju has passed away." Official Chinese news agency reported that Huang had died at 2:03AM, of an unnamed illness, at age 69.
In his concise official obituary, which was the top story on all Chinese news websites, he was hailed as a "long-tested and faithful Communist fighter and an outstanding leader of the party and the state." Many believe this to be contrary to how he is regarded within the party and by the general public, but is rather a political means to "calm the storm" before the 17th Party Congress of the Communist Party is held in November 2007.
Websites reporting Huang Ju's death have disallowed discussions on the issue, and internet forums have censored all negative comments and speculation about Huang Ju's political life. In Shanghai, where Huang is most well known as the city's former Mayor, reception of his death has been very cold . Among the mayors of Shanghai, Huang has received the lowest ratings, while his contemporaries, Zhu Rongji and Xu Kuangdi, were generally liked by the public. As a result Shanghai has not seen any public displays of mourning.
Huang was the first member to die in office since Chairman Mao Zedong in September 1976, some thirty years earlier, and the highest ranking communist leader to die in office since economic reforms began in 1978. He is the only Executive Vice-Premier ever to die in office.
Funeral
Huang's funeral was the highest-ranking affair for any Communist leader since Deng Xiaoping's state funeral in 1997. It was the top story on CCTV's National News at 7PM on 5 June 2007, and occupied well over ten minutes of broadcast time in the half-hour program. Despite its priority and importance, however, Huang's funeral was noticeably simpler than that of previous leaders. The official "funeral" designation for deceased leaders was not used; rather, it was termed a "Send-off ceremony" . Analysts suggest that this may become the new trend for Chinese leaders. Huang's legacy was evaluated very highly in the official state media, which called him an "important member of the Central Committee Leadership under General Secretary Hu Jintao who dedicated his heart to the development of the Party and the State, and offered all of his intellectual strength and power for the cause." Noticeably, former President Jiang Zemin, in official footage, was in tears as he shook the hands of Huang's widow Yu Huiwen . Interestingly, the funeral coverage began with Zeng Qinghong standing at the hospital awaiting Huang Ju's funeral procession, and not with Hu Jintao. All Chinese leaders, including former Premier Zhu Rongji, attended the ceremony.
Political impact
Huang's death also opens a vacancy which preludes the possible installation of a Hu Jintao ally into the positions of Politburo Standing Committee member, as well as Executive Vice-Premier, making the transition to a consolidated Hu Jintao government more likely later this year in the 17th Party Congress.
According to most observers, Huang's death would have little effect on Chinese politics, largely because Huang had been out of the public scene for over a year prior to his death, and the news was long expected. Huang's departure is nevertheless seen as a major blow to the "Shanghai Clique", loyal to former President Jiang Zemin, who has been involved in a constant power struggle with Hu Jintao. Huang, along with disgraced Shanghai Party Chief Chen Liangyu who is currently undergoing investigation for charges of fraud and corruption, were both staunch opponents of Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao.
Personal
Huang was married to Yu Huiwen , who was an executive on a Shanghai Pensions board, and believed to be involved in corruption cases in the city. In February 1995, his daughter, Huang Fan , married Fang Yiwei , the son of Fang Dachuan , a pro-Taiwan newspaperman in San Francisco, for which Huang was criticized by political rivals.
Huang Haiqiang
Huang Haiqiang is a high jumper.
He won the and the , the latter in a personal best jump of 2.32 metres. He competed at the without reaching the final.
He represented his country in the high jump at the 2008 Summer Olympics, but came in dead last.
He won the and the , the latter in a personal best jump of 2.32 metres. He competed at the without reaching the final.
He represented his country in the high jump at the 2008 Summer Olympics, but came in dead last.
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