From The Washington Post:
Vice Premier Huang Ju, a reformer who helped guide China through a period of swift economic change, died in a Beijing hospital early Saturday after a long illness, the government announced. He was reported to be suffering from cancer and had largely disappeared from public view in the past year.
Huang’s death, expected for months, created a vacancy on the Communist Party’s nine-man Politburo Standing Committee, giving President Hu Jintao the opportunity to bring another ally into the party’s senior ruling group. Huang, 68, had spent much of his career in Shanghai and was identified with former president Jiang Zemin and his Shanghai-based proteges. [Full Text]
See also Huang Ju, 68; vice premier of China, party boss by Ching-Ching Ni, China denies death of vice-premier by Jane Macartney, Huang Ju, Chinese Official Who Reformed Banking System, Dies at 68 by Jim Yardley, Key China Official Huang Ju Dies by AP, and Urgent: Chinese Vice-Premier Huang Ju died of illness in Beijing by Xinhua.
