BEIJING Former Chinese President Yang Shangkun, who was shunted aside as a rival to the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, died on Monday, state media reported. He was 92. State television played funeral dirges and displayed a black-and-white picture of Yang, who was the second most powerful man in China before his fall. A television commentator solemnly read an obituary that described Yang as a "great proletarian revolutionary, statesman and strategist, a staunch Marxist, and an outstanding leader of the (Communist) party, the State and the People's Army". Yang died of an unspecified illness, Xinhua news agency reported.

Yang was replaced as president by current head of state Jiang Zemin.