Song Renqiong, 96, Chinese Official
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Song Renqiong, a veteran of the Communist Party of China, has died, the government said. He was 96.
Song died of an illness Saturday morning, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, but it did not provide any more details.
Born in central Hunan province in 1909, Song became a general in China’s People’s Liberation Army in 1955.
A year later, he was elected to the party’s central committee. In 1982, he became a member of the all-powerful politburo.
Song often was considered one of the “Eight Immortals,” a phrase borrowed from Chinese folklore to describe eight elderly veterans of the communist revolution who set policy from behind the scenes through the 1980s. The most powerful was Deng Xiaoping.
“Song was an outstanding member of the CPC, a great Communist solider, a remarkable proletarian revolutionary and a prominent leader of the party’s political work,” Xinhua reported.
