BEIJING, Dec. 21 -- Peng Peiyun, a former Chinese state councilor and vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress, died in Beijing at 6:26 a.m. Sunday following a battle with illness at the age of 96, an official statement has said.

Peng also served as president and honorary president of the All-China Women's Federation.

The statement called Peng an excellent member of the Communist Party of China, a time-tested and loyal communist soldier, a proletarian revolutionary, and an outstanding leader of China's health work, the work related to women and children, and the development of the country's socialist legal system.