Liu Yandong, a former Chinese vice premier and Politburo member, died in Beijing on Wednesday, Xinhua reported, after a career in top government and Communist Party posts.
The state news agency said Liu died after an illness on Wednesday, Oct. 28. Xinhua gave her age as 81. Reuters and the South China Morning Post reported she was 80; a State Council profile lists her birth as November 1945.
A State Council profile dates Liu’s endorsement as vice premier to March 16, 2013. Xinhua said she also served as a state councilor and vice chairperson of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
Liu was a member of the Communist Party of China’s Political Bureau during its 17th and 18th Central Committees, Xinhua said. Reuters reported that few women have held full membership on the Politburo since the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949; Liu was among them.
