BEIJING
A former chairman of China’s National People's Congress (NPC) has passed away at the age of 99, according to state media.
The state-run China Daily reported Thursday that Wan Li, who led the NPC’s Standing Committee between 1988 and 1993, died Wednesday afternoon in Beijing.
The Communist Party of China Central Committee released a statement, praising Wan as an "excellent Party member, a time-tested and loyal communist soldier, and an outstanding proletarian revolutionist, statesman and leader of the Party and the state."
Wan, born in 1916 to a farmer’s family, joined the Communist Party in 1936 and became a senior official of Beijing municipal in 1973.
He served as railways minister between 1975 and 1977 and during that time, improved the overhaul of the system, according to the statement cited by state news agency Xinhua.
Before taking the position of NPC Standing Committee chairman, he was appointed the local Party chief in eastern Anhui province in 1977.
The Daily said that Wan had been a “champion of China's agricultural reforms” who did away with agricultural communes while serving in Anhui, before supervising reforms in the management of farms.
The Party statement, released as an obituary, said Wan – who had been "faithful" to the Party –had "always been confident in the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics."
"His death is a great loss for our Party and our country," it stressed.
