Remains of veteran CPC revolutionary Bo Yibo cremated in Beijing

Bo Yibo, a veteran revolutionary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), who served in several key posts including vice premier, was cremated at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing on Sunday.

Bo died of illness last Monday in Beijing at the age of 99.

President Hu Jintao, former president Jiang Zemin and senior Party and government leaders Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Zeng Qinghong, Wu Guanzheng, Li Changchun and Luo Gan attended the farewell ceremony.

In the memorial hall, Bo's remains, covered with a CPC red banner, lay amid flowers and green cypresses. Above his remains was a giant picture of him on the wall.

CCTV (China Central Television) aired the footage of the ceremony on its popular seven o'clock news program. Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin and high-ranking CPC officials bowed three times before Bo's remains and shook hands with Bo's family members.

An official obituary, read with the footage rolling on TV, described Bo as an outstanding CPC member, a great Communist warrior, a distinguished proletarian revolutionary and a prominent leader in the Party's economic work.

Born in north China's Shanxi Province in 1908, Bo joined the CPC at the age of 17.

Bo was an active revolutionary in the north of the country before the founding of New China and his deeds were often praised by Mao Zedong.

Bo had been a member of the 7th, 8th and 11th CPC Central Committees, alternate member of the Political Bureau of the 8th CPC Central Committee, vice premier of the State Council, and also deputy head of the former CPC Central Advisory Commission.

Bo played a prominent role in China's economic leadership for decades.

His role in aiding the recovery of the Chinese economy after the war against Japanese aggression and the civil war was best reflected in his appointment as the first finance minister of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the director of the national construction committee in 1954 and chief of the national economic commission in 1956.

Bo was persecuted and imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s.

With his reputation rehabilitated in 1978, he was appointed a vice premier of the State Council in 1979.

Bo was a firm supporter of the reform and opening drive advocated by late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping.

He was appointed as the first deputy head of the State Commission for Restructuring the Economy in 1982. He was actively involved in reforms concerning the introduction of market forces, the redefining of relations between central and local governments and the establishment of special economic zones.

Bo played an important role in the reform of the CPC's cadre system during his ten-year tenure as the deputy director of the former CPC central advisory commission, which was set up in 1982 and headed by Deng Xiaoping.

In this position, Bo made an important contribution to the abolishment of the life-long tenure of senior leaders, the transition of the Party's leadership from the old to the younger generation and the recruitment of more outstanding young cadres.

Bo devoted much of his time after his retirement to the writing of his memoirs and study of the Party's history. His works include a two-volume memoir that provides rare insights into the policy-making processes of key historic events.

Source: Xinhua