Remains of Mao's daughter-in-law cremated

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-03 11:22

BEIJING -- The body of Shao Hua, daughter-in-law of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong and major general of the Chinese army, was cremated at the Babaoshan cemetery in Beijing Wednesday.

President and Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee General Secretary Hu Jintao and his predecessor Jiang Zemin showed their condolence to the Shao's death.

Those who condoled also included other members of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang, and Zhou Yongkang.

The press release calls Shao an "excellent member of the Communist Party of China (CPC)" and a "time-tested loyal communist fighter".

Shao, the wife of Mao's second son Mao Anqing, died on May 24. She was 69.

Shao was born in Yan'an, capital of the CPC-ruled area in northwestern China's Shaanxi Province, in October 1938. In 1939, she was jailed along with her parents after arrested by warlords on their way to the Soviet Union. In 1946, the family were released and returned to Yan'an, with the help of the Party.

In 1953, Shao joined the Chinese Communist Youth League. In 1960, she married to Mao's son. Since 1967, she had worked on a series of positions in the Army. In 1995, she was promoted to major general.

As a military researcher and a photographer, Shao published over 80 works. She was deputy head of the research department of the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, chairperson of the China Photographers Association and the China Women Photographers Association.

Shao was a member of the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth National Committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Her husband Mao Anqing died of illness on March 23, 2007.

Senior Colonel Mao Xinyu, 33, their only son, is also a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences.