Liang Congjie, the founder of China’s first non-governmental environmental group and part of a family of prominent reformers, has died in Beijing, the group said last Friday.

Liang died on Thursday at the age of 78, the Friends of Nature announced on its website.

According to the Beijing News, Liang died of internal organ failure following a long illness.

In 1994, Liang set up the Friends of Nature, which has long been regarded as China’s first-ever non-governmental environmental protection group.

The group has worked to save endangered wildlife such as the Tibetan antelope and maintains extensive education programmes.

Despite years of activism, Liang complained in recent interviews that China had largely failed to protect its environment from the ravages of unbridled economic growth and development.

Liang comes from a family that regularly bore the wrath of successive ruling governments in China due to their calls for reform.

His grandfather Liang Qichao (1873-1929), was chased into exile by the Qing Dynasty rulers after he tried to influence the Emperor Guang Xu to adopt political and economic reforms.

His father Liang Sicheng (1901-1972), an expert on Chinese architecture, was labelled a ‘bourgeois reactionary’ during the Cultural Revolution after he opposed orders from leader Mao Zedong to destroy Beijing’s city wall.

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