Liu Yandong, a former vice premier and Politburo member who served from 2013 to 2018, died of illness in Beijing on October 28th at the age of 80, state media reported.
Former Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong died of illness in Beijing on the afternoon of October 28th, 2026, at the age of 80, according to an official announcement by the Xinhua News Agency.
Born in November 1945 in Nantong, Jiangsu, Liu rose through the Communist Youth League and the United Front Work Department before joining the Politburo in 2007 and serving as vice premier from 2013 to 2018, overseeing education, science, health and related portfolios.
She was one of the highest-ranking women in Chinese leadership during her tenure and among the few women to have held a full Politburo seat since 1949.
Xinhua’s obituary confirms the date, time and cause of death along with her key roles; Reuters and the South China Morning Post independently carried the Xinhua report with matching biographical details, and no conflicting accounts have appeared.
Liu’s career spanned united-front work, education reform and social policy under successive leaderships, and her passing removes one of the last senior figures from the Hu Jintao-era Politburo generation still occasionally referenced in official narratives.