Liao Jingdan, veteran Chinese publicity leader, dies at 93

Liao Jingdan, a former Chinese revolutionary and long-time publicity official of the Communist Party of China (CPC), has passed away. He was 93.

According to a government obituary released on Friday, Liao died on November 8, 2006 in Beijing. Chinese President Hu Jintao and other senior state and Party officials expressed their condolences after Liao's death, it said.

Born in Changshou County of southwestern Sichuan Province, Liao joined the CPC in 1937. He was the president of the Yangtze Daily, a Communist revolutionary newspaper before the founding of the people's republic.

After 1949, Liao was appointed deputy head of publicity for southwestern China, then president of Xinhua Daily, and director of Xinhua News Agency's southwestern bureau.

Liao entered the leadership of the provincial committee of CPC in the populous province of Sichuan in the 1960s, but was persecuted and purged during the turbulent Cultural Revolution.

He was rehabilitated in 1972 and rose to the post of deputy head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee in 1977, a post he held for five years. He was later an adviser for the publicity department.

Liao retired from all posts in 2004.

Source: Xinhua