Vice premier Huang Ju dies

Chinese vice premier Huang Ju died Saturday after a long illness, Reuters reported. The news agency quoted reports by state media, which did not specify Huang's cause of death, though he was known to have had cancer. Huang, 68, was the sixth-ranked member of the Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, the most powerful body in China's government. While he was technically in charge of the committee's economic and financial portfolios, it is believed his death will not affect economic policy since Wu Yi, another vice premier, has already taken up his duties. Huang was part of the so-called 'Shanghai faction', a group of officials loyal to former president Jiang Zemin. He is credited with Shanghai's economic rise in the 1990s, when he was the city's mayor and party secretary.