Pioneer of China environmental NGOs dies

BEIJING (Reuters) - Liang Congjie, who founded China's first environmental non-governmental organization, has died of complications from a lung infection, his group Friends of Nature said on Friday. He was 78.

He died at a Beijing hospital on Thursday, the Beijing News reported.

Liang, a senior member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a group that advises parliament, quit his job at a state-owned publishing house to set up Friends of Nature in 1994.

"Mr. Liang played an irreplaceable role promoting ordinary Chinese's participation in supervising pollution problems and protecting the environment," Friends of Nature secretary-general Li Bo told Reuters.

"He practiced what he preached," Li said.

Liang biked to work at the consultative conference every time, local media said.

At age 67, Liang travelled to Kekexili in Qinghai province to protect endangered Tibetan antelopes, media said.

Liang was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay award for public service in 2000. The award, named after late Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay, is given annually to Asians who have excelled in public service.

He comes from a prominent family. His grandfather was Liang Qichao (1873-1929), a Qing dynasty government official who incurred the wrath of the Empress Dowager by convincing Emperor Guang Xu to push for reforms.

During the chaotic 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, Liang Congjie was purged for being a "grandson of China's biggest royalist."

He studied history at the prestigious Peking University.

Liang is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.

(Reporting by Benjamin Kang Lim and Huang Yan; Editing by Ken Wills and Sanjeev Miglani)