All this, together with the enacting of the Law on Property Rights and the Law on Oversight, gives a manifestation of the performance of the NPC with Wu as wheelman.

Observers see the Law on Property Rights, designed to put private property and state-owned property under indiscriminate protection, as the most brilliant progress achieved in Wu's tenure as the top lawmaker.

The British magazine Economist ran a cover story about the law, describing it as "a great symbolic victory for economic reform and rule of law" in China, and some overseas scholars deemed it a legislative endorsement of the CPC's reform and opening-up policy.

However, few knows how much Wu had contributed to the enacting of the law, which aroused heated debate since it was initiated in 1993.

He had called countless meetings, chaired by himself or his colleagues, to solicit opinions from NPC deputies, scholars and officials, while publicizing the draft for public review.

"The people's congress is a democratic platform where everyone has the right to voice his own views, including unfavorable ideas and opinions," Wu stressed times and again in front of his fellow lawmakers.

Industry expert

China's booming market economy has benefited from a number of laws including the Law on Property Rights, Law on Corporate Income Tax, Antitrust Law and Banking Oversight and Management Law and Securities Law.

Analysts attribute it to Wu's efforts, believing his rich experience in economic work and industrial development is very helpful to his insight about a legal frame for the socialist market economy.

Wu, a native of Feidong, east Anhui Province, came up through the ranks in Shanghai, where he became a Standing Committee member of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the CPC in 1983 and Party chief in 1991. Through his reform measures, Shanghai was pushed to the frontline of China's reform and opening-up drive and cemented its status as the country's largest industrial city and economic hub.

Wu was elected member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in 1992 and moved to work in Beijing two years later. He became vice premier in 1995.

During the following eight years as vice premier, Wu mainly took charge of economic work and trade, transportation and communications, energy, information industry and social security. He always upheld the "three nevers" principle -- never abuse power for personal gains, never be lazy and never evade responsibilities.

Years of work as engineer and manager made Wu a well-known "industry expert" who knew quite well how to run an enterprise, and his rich experience helped a large number of poorly managed state-owned factories out of plight.