(FILES) China's State Councilor Liu Yandong waves to members of the media as she leaves the State Department after meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington, DC on April 14, 2009. President Xi Jinping mourned Liu Yandong on November 3, 2026, one of only a handful of women to have sat on the Chinese Communist Party's elite Politburo, attending a "solemn" ceremony in Beijing, state media reported. (Photo by Paul J. RICHARDS / AFP via Getty Images)