BEIJING, June 2: China’s Vice Premier Huang Ju died in the early hours of the morning on Saturday after a long illness, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Xinhua did not specify his illness, but Huang was known to have had cancer.

Huang, 68, is ranked sixth in the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, the all-powerful group of nine that rules China, where he had been responsible for the key economic and financial portfolios.

But his death is unlikely to impact economic policy, with another vice premier, Wu Yi, having already taken over his roles. The Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets were closed on Saturday.

An obituary issued by the central government called Huang, who was seen as an ally of former leader Jiang Zemin, a “long-tested and faithful communist fighter and an outstanding leader of the party and the state”.

An engineer by training, Huang emerged from Jiang’s Shanghai powerbase, becoming mayor of the financial capital in 1991 and Communist Party boss there in 1994.

Huang’s death comes months before the 17th Party Congress, a five-yearly meeting that makes key personnel changes and is likely to tap a younger generation of leaders to take the helm when President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao retire in the next decade.

But analysts say how Huang’s replacement is handled — or whether he is replaced at all before the Party Congress — could be a barometer of Jiang’s influence. —Reuters