A portrait of the deceased General Xiao Ke, who died at the age of 102 in Beijing on Friday, October 24, 2008 [Photo: Xinhuanet.com]

General Xiao Ke, a former vice defense minister and president and first-political-commissar of the Military Academy, died of illness at the age of 102 in Beijing on Friday.

Xiao was "an excellent member of the Communist Party of China (CPC), a time-tested, faithful communist fighter, and a proletarian revolutionary and militarist," according to an official press release.

Xiao was a former member of the Consultant Committee of the CPC Central Committee, a former vice chairman of the Fifth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and a former member of the Central Military Commission.

Xiao began participating in the revolutionary work in March 1927. Two months later, he joined the CPC.

In 1955, he became a general when the People's Republic of China (PRC) introduced the military ranking system for the first time.