[1] An electrical engineer by trade, Huang was a close confidante of party leader Jiang Zemin, to whom he owed his rise to power.

From 1967 to 1977, Huang worked as Technician in the power section of the Shanghai Zhonghua Metallurgical Factory (上海中华冶金厂), where he also served as deputy lead of the production party group.

[4] In 1987, Huang was named as a candidate for the mayor of Shanghai, but received too few votes supporting his candidacy by the municipal People's Congress.

Zhou was eventually charged with multiple counts of fraud, but only sentenced to three years in prison, which analysts speculated was due to Huang exerting his influence on the municipal courts.

[10] Huang's patron, general secretary Jiang Zemin, was due to leave his party leadership post in 2002, handing the reins of power to a new generation of leaders led by Hu Jintao.

In the lead-up to the 16th Party Congress held in the autumn of 2002, Jiang worked to promote some of his former associates in Shanghai to the Politburo Standing Committee, the de facto top decision making body of the country.

Jiang also reportedly proposed that Huang lead the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which entailed a seat on the Standing Committee.

[4] Huang's appointment was controversial, not only because of his poor reputation in Shanghai, but also because he was seen as highly partisan, and that he was tapped for promotion solely due to his coziness with Jiang and not as a result of tangible achievements.

[12] Nevertheless, on 15 November 2002, Huang was officially named a member of the 9-man Politburo Standing Committee, joining other Jiang associates such as Jia Qinglin, Zeng Qinghong, and Li Changchun on the supreme body.

Huang's political fate seemed to hang in the balance when his close former colleague Chen Liangyu was removed from the Politburo and put under investigation for corruption as part of the Shanghai pension scandal in 2006.

[21] [22] False reports of Huang's death surfaced twice thereafter; some suggest his illness was used as an opportunity by internet users to vent about social and political problems.

In unprecedented fashion, the English and Chinese versions of his obituary were relayed simultaneously to the country and the world only a few hours after his death, at around 6:30 am Beijing time.

In his concise official obituary, he was hailed as a "long-tested and faithful Communist fighter and an outstanding leader of the party and the state.

Former Party general secretary Jiang Zemin, in official footage, was in tears as he shook the hands of Huang's widow Yu Huiwen.

Among the mayors of Shanghai, Huang received the lowest ratings, while his contemporaries, Zhu Rongji and Xu Kuangdi, were more popular.

The official "funeral" (zhuidaohui; 追悼会) designation for deceased leaders was not used; rather, it was termed a "send-off ceremony" (gaobie yishi; 告别仪式).

Huang's death opened a vacancy on the Politburo Standing Committee, which signaled an opportunity for the consolidation of Hu Jintao's power during the 17th Party Congress held in October 2007.

Huang's seat on the PSC was left vacant until a newly minted PSC at 17th Party Congress, which saw Li Keqiang being slated to take over for the position of first-ranked vice premier; in the interim, Wu Yi took over some of Huang's former responsibilities at the State Council as its vice premier.

[18] Huang, along with disgraced Shanghai Party secretary Chen Liangyu, who was convicted and sent to prison on charges of fraud and corruption, were both seen as staunch political opponents of Hu and premier Wen Jiabao.

Some commentators suggested that the timing of Huang's death conveniently absolved himself of any responsibility in the Shanghai pension scandal and spared him and his family from political disgrace, thus avoiding any open splits in the Party's top leadership.

Huang's tenure in Shanghai was marked with high levels of economic growth and a dramatic transformation of the city's skyline and urban infrastructure.

Chinese-language media speculated that Huang provided "political shelter" for real estate mogul Zhou Zhengyi, allowing the latter a free hand in the forced eviction of local residents to pave way for his company's construction projects.

The sentence, which was seen as extremely lenient by the standards of Chinese law, was allegedly due to pressure applied by Huang Ju on the city's courts.

[33] In addition, according to Weiquan lawyer Zheng Enchong and a civil group representing those affected by forced evictions, Huang continued to unduly influence the proceedings of the Zhou case by impeding its further investigation.

Huang was married to Yu Huiwen (余慧文), who was an executive on a Shanghai Pensions board, and speculated to be involved in corruption cases in the city.