Huang Ju
Huang Ju was a Chinese politician and a high-ranking leader in the Chinese Communist Party. He 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 also served as the first-ranked vice premier of China beginning in 2003. He 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. He served as mayor of Shanghai between 1991 and 1994, then Communist Party secretary of the metropolis between 1994 and 2002. Huang's career in Shanghai and his family's alleged involvement in several corruption cases in the city generated controversy. After 2002, Huang emerged as one of the least popular and most partisan members of China's top leadership, and was named by observers as a "core member" of the Shanghai clique.
Early life and career
Huang was born in Shanghai and he was the second of five children in the family. Huang spent a long time in Zhejiang when he was young. From 1944 to 1950, he studied at Zhejiang Jiashan Yishan Primary School and Qidong Primary School. He attended Jiashan No.2 Middle School and Jiaxing No.1 Middle School for high school from 1950 to 1956. He attended Tsinghua University between 1956 and 1963 where he graduated in Electrical Engineering. In 1966, he joined the Chinese Communist Party.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 also served as deputy lead of the production party group. He became deputy director of the Revolutionary Committee, Deputy Plant Manager, while working as an 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.
Shanghai politics
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 was named as a candidate for the mayor of Shanghai, but received too few votes supporting his candidacy by the municipal People's Congress. Zhu Rongji was subsequently elected mayor instead. When Zhu ascended to Beijing to become Vice Premier and governor of China's central bank, Huang became mayor of Shanghai in 1991 and then the city's party chief in 1994 after Wu Bangguo became Vice Premier. Huang served as Party secretary of Shanghai until October 2002. In September 1994 he entered the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party at the 4th Plenum of the 14th Central Committee.
Huang'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 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 to climb higher on the party's career ladder. Huang was said to be so thankful of Jiang's patronage that while on a working visit to New York during his term of Shanghai mayor, Huang and his entourage, immediately after leaving the airport, proceeded first thing to wine-and-dine Jiang's son Jiang Mianheng.
During Huang's term of party chief of Shanghai, he kept the city's party organization in line, and is remembered by some as having raised the income of Shanghai residents. The Pudong New Area also saw explosive growth under Huang. While Shanghai's economic growth continued during Huang Ju's time as the city's leader, most observers credit Shanghai's success to the work of Zhu Rongji and Xu Kuangdi. Among the mayors of Shanghai in the late 20th century, Huang was the least popular. During his term as Shanghai party chief, Huang often criticized mayor Xu Kuangdi, and opposed Xu's holding higher office. Because Xu was a popular figure in Shanghai, Huang's open suppression of Xu damaged his reputation among ordinary residents. In Shanghai political circles, Huang earned a reputation as being extremely adept at crafting relationships with his superiors. However, both Huang's successor Chen Liangyu and Jiang Zemin evaluated Huang's term in Shanghai with gushing praise, stating that Huang was instrumental in contributing to Shanghai's economic growth.
Controversies
In May 1994, after Huang's installation as the Shanghai party chief, his wife Yu Huiwen, along with Shanghai official Chen Tiedi began a charity organization allegedly for money laundering for Huang's wife and close colleagues, who received "donations" from the business elite. Although some of this money did indeed go to charity, there was a large amount of funds unaccounted for. It was unclear what Huang's involvement was in this process, but it was clear that his power in Shanghai gave license to his family.Huang was also believed to be implicated in the Shanghai real estate scandals involving Zhou Zhengyi, one of Shanghai's business elite. Huang did little to curb monopolies in Shanghai's booming real estate sector. Public protests resulted from residents being evicted from their homes to make way for new construction. Zhou was eventually charged with multiple counts of fraud, but only sentenced to three years in prison, which analysts speculated was due to Huang 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, also moved funds for personal use.
Ascension to Beijing
Huang's patron, general secretary Jiang Zemin, was due to leave his party leadership post in 2002, handing the reins of power to a new generation of leaders led by Hu Jintao. In the lead-up to the 16th Party Congress held in the autumn of 2002, Jiang worked to promote some of his former associates in Shanghai to the Politburo Standing Committee, the de facto top decision making body of the country. Initially Huang was said to have been offered to replace Ding Guangen to take over the central propaganda department, but Huang declined. Jiang also reportedly proposed that Huang lead the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which entailed a seat on the Standing Committee. Eventually, it was settled that Huang would earn a seat on the Standing Committee as first-ranking vice premier assisting Wen Jiabao, replacing outgoing vice premier Li Lanqing.Huang's appointment was controversial, not only because of his poor reputation in Shanghai, but also 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. Zhu Rongji, then the outgoing premier and who had worked with Huang in Shanghai, was reportedly opposed to Huang's elevation. Back in 1997, Huang's election to the 15th Central Committee received only 1,455 votes in favour, out of 2,074 votes cast, and some 300 votes against, unusually low in Chinese national politics. This meant that nearly one third of party delegates did not even approve of Huang's central committee membership. In 2002, of the full members of the Central Committee, Huang again received the lowest number of votes of anyone elected, meaning there was a real possibility that Huang 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 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. In March 2003, he was confirmed by the National People's Congress as vice premier of the State Council, ranking first.
His position as first vice premier was considered a figurehead role with little power, especially when compared to previous first vice premiers Yao Yilin, Zhu Rongji and Li Lanqing. His official portfolios were to oversee finance and banking. Huang served as a member of the Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs.
Huang's political fate seemed to hang in the balance when his close former colleague Chen Liangyu was removed from the Politburo and put under investigation for corruption as part of the Shanghai pension scandal in 2006. By this time, Huang was already ill and cut back on public appearances. There was speculation that Huang would be implicated in the scandal.
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 he had pancreatic cancer, the party did not, at the time, disclose the nature of his condition.On 17 March, sources reported he was near death. Huang attended a Science and Technology forum in Beijing on 5 June, temporarily reducing speculation that he was soon going to die.
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. Huang 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's absence prompted speculation that his critical condition was preventing him from carrying out his official duties. Hong Kong media speculated that Huang was undergoing medical treatment in Shanghai. Huang appeared, looking frail, during the National People's Congress in March 2007. The government denied Huang's request to resign effective March 2007, but thereafter his position became entirely ceremonial. He handed over his role of oversight of the Financial Affairs portfolio to premier Wen Jiabao in January. Huang disappeared from public view in March 2007. Huang left Shanghai in April and was admitted to the 301 Military Hospital in Beijing, after which his health situation deteriorated.
Some media sources reported Huang's death as early as May, though the initial reports turned out to be false. To reduce speculation, by 9 May, the authorities closed off the south-west wing of the 301 Military Hospital, and directed that all news related to Huang on television and on the internet follow official releases from official state news agency Xinhua.
False reports of Huang's death surfaced twice thereafter; some suggest his illness was used as an opportunity by internet users to vent about social and political problems. Despite his being incapacitated, Huang was elected as one of Shanghai's local party representatives to the Party's 17th Party Congress on 29 May.