The remains of former Vice-Minister of the State Planning Commission Rui Xingwen were cremated here Friday.

Rui was also a member of the Standing Committee of the NationalCommittee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the top advisory body in China.

Top leaders and former top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party and government, including Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin, Wu Bangguo,Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Zeng Qinghong, Huang Ju, Wu Guanzheng, LiChangchun and Luo Gan, expressed their condolences and comfort in various forms when Rui was seriously ill and after he died on June5 at the age of 78.

Born on April 1, 1927, Rui was a native of Lianshui, Jiangsu Province. He joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1945. Rui was appointed minister of Urban and Rural Construction and Environmental Protection, was concurrently vice-minister of the State Planning Commission in April 1984 and was made the secretaryof the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee in June 1985. He served asa member of the Secretariat of the 13th CPC Central Committee and deputy director of the leading group for the publicity and ideological work of the CPC central committee and was again named vice-minister of the State Planning Commission in May 1991.

Source: Xinhua