45 Facts About Huang Ju

Huang Ju was a Chinese politician and a high-ranking leader in the Chinese Communist Party.

Huang Ju was one of the nine members of the Politburo Standing Committee of the CCP, China's top decision making body, between 2002 until his death in 2007, and served as the first-ranked vice premier of China beginning in 2003.

Huang Ju died in office before he could complete his terms on the Standing Committee and as vice premier.

An electrical engineer by trade, Huang was a close confidante of party leader Jiang Zemin, to whom he owed his rise to power.

Huang Ju served as mayor of Shanghai between 1991 and 1994, then Communist Party secretary of the metropolis between 1994 and 2002.

Huang Ju was born in Shanghai and he was the second of five children in the family.

Huang Ju spent a long time in Zhejiang when he was young.

Huang Ju attended Jiashan No 2 Middle School and Jiaxing No 1 Middle School for high school from 1950 to 1956.

Huang Ju attended Tsinghua University between 1956 and 1963 where he graduated in Electrical Engineering.

Huang Ju 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 Ju worked as Technician in the power section of the Shanghai Zhonghua Metallurgical Factory, where he served as deputy lead of the production party group.

Huang Ju became deputy director of the Revolutionary Committee, Deputy Plant Manager, while working as an engineer, from 1977 to 1980.

Huang Ju was Assistant Manager of the Shanghai Petrochemical General Machinery Company from 1980 to 1982.

From 1983 to 1984, Huang Ju served as a standing member of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and secretary of the industry affairs committee; he was the Shanghai Party Committee's secretary General from 1984 to 1985 and deputy party chief in charge of propaganda from 1985 to 1986.

In 1987, Huang Ju was named as a candidate for the mayor of Shanghai, but received too few votes supporting his candidacy by the municipal People's Congress.

When Zhu ascended to Beijing to become Vice Premier and governor of China's central bank, Huang Ju became mayor of Shanghai in 1991 and then the city's party chief in 1994 after Wu Bangguo became Vice Premier.

Huang Ju served as Party secretary of Shanghai until October 2002.

Huang Ju's rise in Shanghai politics was largely credited to the patronage of Jiang Zemin, who served as the Party Committee secretary in Shanghai until the latter's sudden appointment to become general secretary of the Communist Party following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.

Huang Ju was seen as one of Jiang's most trusted confidantes in Shanghai, and Jiang's elevation to become the party's top leader paved the way Huang Ju to climb higher on the party's career ladder.

In Shanghai political circles, Huang Ju earned a reputation as being extremely adept at crafting relationships with his superiors.

Huang Ju was believed to be implicated in the Shanghai real estate scandals involving Zhou Zhengyi, one of Shanghai's business elite.

Huang Ju did little to curb monopolies in Shanghai's booming real estate sector.

Zhou was eventually charged with multiple counts of fraud, but only sentenced to three years in prison, which analysts speculated was due to Huang Ju exerting his influence on the municipal courts.

Huang Ju's appointment was controversial, not only because of his poor reputation in Shanghai, but because he was seen as highly partisan, and that he was tapped for promotion solely due to his coziness with Jiang and not as a result of tangible achievements.

In 2002, of the full members of the Central Committee, Huang Ju again received the lowest number of votes of anyone elected, meaning there was a real possibility that Huang Ju would not have entered the Standing Committee at all, since Standing Committee members must be selected from the Central Committee.

Nevertheless, on 15 November 2002, Huang Ju was officially named a member of the 9-man Politburo Standing Committee, joining other Jiang associates such as Jia Qinglin, Zeng Qinghong, and Li Changchun on the supreme body.

Huang Ju served as a member of the Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs.

In February 2006, the South China Morning Post reported that Huang Ju was seriously ill, and was expected to step down.

Huang Ju offered his condolences to late party elder Bo Yibo when Bo died, but did not attend the funeral as would have been expected of a Standing Committee member.

Huang Ju's absence prompted speculation that his critical condition was preventing him from carrying out his official duties.

Hong Kong media speculated that Huang Ju was undergoing medical treatment in Shanghai.

Huang Ju appeared, looking frail, during the National People's Congress in March 2007.

False reports of Huang Ju's death surfaced twice thereafter; some suggest his illness was used as an opportunity by internet users to vent about social and political problems.

Huang Ju's death was the top story on the national news program Xinwen Lianbo, where news anchors in black suits read off a dry and sober 155-word news item.

Websites reporting Huang Ju's death forbade discussions, and internet forums censored all negative comments and speculation about Huang Ju's political life.

Huang Ju was the first PSC member to die in office since Chairman Mao himself in September 1976, some thirty years earlier, and the highest-ranking communist leader to die in office since economic reforms began in 1978.

Huang Ju was the only first vice premier ever to die in office.

Huang Ju's funeral was notable as one of the highest-ranking ceremonies for the death of any Communist leader since Deng Xiaoping's state funeral in 1997.

Huang Ju's death opened a vacancy on the Politburo Standing Committee, which signaled an opportunity for the consolidation of Hu Jintao's power during the 17th Party Congress held in October 2007.

Huang Ju's death was nevertheless seen as a major political blow to the Shanghai Clique, a loose grouping of senior officials with connections to Shanghai and rose to prominence in the footsteps of the political career of party leader Jiang Zemin.

Some Shanghai residents and political commentators suggest that Huang Ju contributed significantly to the development of the Pudong area.

Chinese-language media speculated that Huang Ju provided "political shelter" for real estate mogul Zhou Zhengyi, allowing the latter a free hand in the forced eviction of local residents to pave way for his company's construction projects.

The event signalled that Huang Ju continued to be regarded positively in an official capacity.

Huang Ju was married to Yu Huiwen, who was an executive on a Shanghai Pensions board, and speculated to be involved in corruption cases in the city.

In February 1995, his daughter, Daphne Huang Ju, married James Fang, the son of Florence Fang.