Huang Ju, Chinese engineer and politician, 1st Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China (b. 1938)

Huang Ju (28 September 1938 – 2 June 2007) was a Chinese politician and a high-ranking leader in the Communist Party of China. He was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, China's top decision making body, between 2002 until his death in 2007, and also served as the first-ranked Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China beginning in 2003. He died in office before he could complete his terms on the Standing Committee and as Vice-Premier.An electrical engineer by trade, Huang was a close confidante of party leader Jiang Zemin, to whom he owed his rise to power. He served as Mayor of Shanghai between 1991 and 1994, then Communist Party Secretary of the metropolis between 1994 and 2002. Huang's career in Shanghai and his family's alleged involvement in several corruption cases in the city generated controversy. After 2002, Huang emerged as one of the least popular and most partisan members of China's top leadership, and was named by observers as a "core member" of the Shanghai clique.