Qiao Shi
Qiao Shi died on 14 June 2015 in Beijing at the age of 90. In his official obituary, Qiao Shi was extolled as "an excellent Party member, a time-tested fighter for the communist cause, and an outstanding proletarian revolutionary, statesman and leader of the Party and the state". Qiao Shi was the first major leader from the third-generation of leadership to have died. His obituary numbered over 2,000 Chinese characters, half of the length of the obituaries of second-generation stalwarts Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun, but far higher than the word count of the obituaries of Hua Guofeng, Liu Huaqing, and Huang Ju, who were each given a mere few hundred words. The announcement of his death was the third item on the evening "Xinwen Lianbo" program; the announcement was made in the form of a "joint statement" by the top organs of the party and state, which is generally reserved for only the highest-ranked leaders.