BEIJING -- Zou Jiahua, a former vice-premier of China's State Council, died of illness at the age of 99 in Beijing at 11:42 pm Sunday, an official statement said.

Zou had also once served as a member of the Political Bureau of the 14th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress.

In the statement, Zou was extolled as an excellent CPC member, a time-tested and loyal communist soldier, proletarian revolutionist, and an outstanding leader in boosting China's economic development and national defense industry, and advancing the socialist legal system.