Mu Qing, China's prominent journalist and former president of Xinhua News Agency, died of illness at the age of 82 in Beijing early Saturday.

Mu, of Hui nationality and born in 1921, was a native of Qixian County, central China's Henan Province. He joined the Eighth Route Army of China, a leading military force in fighting against Japanese aggression of China, in 1942 as a war correspondent.

Until the founding of New China in 1949, Mu had been engaged inwar news coverage, including the reporting on the War of Liberation to overthrow the rule of Chiang Kai-shek.

Mu became a member of the Communist Party of China in 1939. He served as president of Xinhua News Agency from 1982 to 1992, during which time Xinhua initially developed from a state news agency to a news agency of world level.

In his career as a correspondent over the more than half a century, Mu wrote many news stories that are widely acclaimed in China's history of journalism. Some of Mu's news writings are included in textbooks for primary and middle school students, and one of the most well-known is on Jiao Yulu, a county Party secretary.

Mu also published dozens of other works including prose writings, photo albums and journalism theory.

(Xinhua News Agency October 11, 2003)