Behind-the-scenes power broker backed 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown
Song Renqiong , one of the 'eight immortals' of the Communist Party - the octogenarian leaders who ruled the country behind the scenes in the 1980s and early 1990s - died in a Beijing hospital yesterday aged 96.
With his death, the council of eight supreme elders, who included leaders such as Deng Xiaoping , Chen Yun and Yang Shangkun , is down to one - Bo Yibo , 97, the father of Commerce Minister Bo Xilai .
Song held several senior positions in the party. He was a member of the Politburo from 1982 to 1987 and vice-chairman of the powerful Central Advisory Commission.
Although the commission was in theory a council of retired elders with no official power, members effectively held veto power over major policies and personnel affairs.
Song joined the Communist Party at the age of 17 and, over his long party career, served as political commissar of both the Red Army and the People's Liberation Army. He was also a regional commander of the Eighth Route Army.