Wu Bangguo, the former head of China’s top legislature, died in Beijing on Tuesday morning at the age of 83, official news agency Xinhua reported.
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Wu was one of China’s most powerful men between 2002 and 2012, serving as chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the country’s top legislature, and the second-ranking member of the ruling Communist Party.
Wu was also the second-ranking member of the Politburo Standing Committee, China’s top decision-making body, alongside former president Hu Jintao and former premier Wen Jiabao, who ranked third.
Wu was best remembered for his strong opposition to the Western political system.
At an NPC seminar in 2011, Wu identified five political arrangements that China “cannot implement”: a multiparty system, pluralistic ideologies, federalism, privatisation, and the separation of powers and bicameralism.
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Wu reiterated this to lawmakers in his annual work report at the NPC session that year. Before leaving office in 2013, he insisted that “we will absolutely not copy models in the Western political system”.