Hou Jie, a Standing Committee member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), died from illness in Beijing on January 3 at the age of 70.

Chinese top leaders Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, Zhu Rongji, Li Ruihuan, Hu Jintao, Wei Jianxing and Li Lanqing all expressed their condolences over the demise of Hou, who was also chairman of CPPCC Subcommittee of Human Resources and Environment.

Hou was born in 1931 in Luanxian County, Hebei Province, and joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1948. Hou served as minister of construction from 1991 to 1998 after working in Heilongjiang Province, northeast China, for more than 40 years as official at various levels. In 1996 he received a special honorary prize from the United Nations Center for Human Settlements for his outstanding work in solving China's housing problem.

Hou was a member of 12th, 13th and 14th CPC Central Committees.(Xinhua)