Former head of China’s parliament Qiao Shi died at age 91 in Beijing on Sunday, state TV said. Qiao, who was born in Shanghai in 1924, joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1940. He served as vice premier in 1986 and head of the party’s anti-graft agency, Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, in 1987. He was chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee from 1993 to 1998.
The official obituary said Qiao was “brutally persecuted” during the Cultural Revolution. Qiao was well respected in the party as well as by the public, according to state media. A New York Times report in 2012 cited unnamed sources as saying Qiao was one of the party elders then-president Hu Jintao sought advice on the corruption case of former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai.
