Hua Guofeng
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“ | Whatever Chairman Mao said, we will say, and whatever Chairman Mao did, we will do. | „ |
~ Hua's infamous "Two Whatevers" policy. |
Hua Guofeng (16 February, 1921 - 20 August, 2008) was a Chinese politician who ruled as the premier and chairman of China after the death of both Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai in 1976 until he was ousted in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping, Hu Yaobang, and Zhao Ziyang.
Hua Guofeng first came to power in 4 February, 1976 nearly a month after the death of premier Zhou Enlai and throughout the last months in Mao’s life, Hua Guofeng was sometimes seen hanging around with the elderly Mao. During this time, the Cultural Revolution was still ongoing with many officials and countless people being purged and executed. By the time Mao Zedong died in September of 1976, Hua Guofeng took over as the Chairman of the Communist Party of China. During much of the late-1970s Hua Guofeng was the undisputed leader of China with his “Two Whatevers” policy which was a continuation of Mao’s destruction policy.
By 1978, Deng Xiaoping declared himself as the Paramount Leader of China, becoming the de facto leader and making Hua Guofeng the de jure leader. Throughout his last few years as the leader from 1978 to 1981, during this period, Hua Guofeng continued to lose more of his influence within the party and would eventually step down as the Premier in 1980 relinquishing the office to Zhao Ziyang. And a year later in 1981, Hua Guofeng would step down as the Chairman of the Party and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, giving up the offices to Hu Yaobang and Deng Xiaoping.
Hua Guofeng was allowed to stay in the party, but his legacy would be silenced and disallowed resulting in propaganda depicting Deng Xiaoping as Mao’s successor instead skipping Hua.
Biography edit
Born in Jiaocheng, Shanxi, the fourth son of a family originally from Fan County, Henan, Hua lost his father at the age of seven.
Hua joined the CCP in 1938. After the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949, he became a local party secretary in Hunan province, the home province of Mao Zedong. He was transferred in 1952 to head the party apparatus in Xiangtan county in Hunan. Hua became vice governor of the province in 1958 and was a strong supporter of Mao in the Great Leap Forward (1958–60).
During the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) he received Mao’s endorsement against rebel groups in Hunan, and he was active in setting up that province’s revolutionary committee in 1968 and in reestablishing its party committee in 1970. By late 1970 Hua had become the top man in Hunan province. He became a member of the State Council in 1971 and was later listed a member of the Politburo (Political Bureau) of CCP in 1973 and moved to Beijing, where he was named vice premier in 1975.
Hua crucially enjoyed the support of Mao's loyal security chief, Wang Dongxing, who had command of the elite 8341 Special Regiment, as well as other leading figures on the Politburo, including Vice Premier Li Xiannian and General Chen Xilian, Commander of the Beijing Military Region, as well as Luo Qingchang, chief of the intelligence services.
After the death of Premier Zhou Enlai in January 1976, Hua was named acting premier. In April—allegedly at the instigation of Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing, and three of her political allies (the Gang of Four)—Mao chose Hua over his chief political rival, vice premier Deng Xiaoping, as permanent premier, and Deng was purged.
Hua became chairman of the CCP after the death of Mao in September 1976. Known as an ideologically flexible leader, Hua had no strong ties either to the Maoist radicals or to Deng and the other pragmatists within the Communist Party. Although his unexpected rise to power had been seen as a compromise between the party factions led, respectively, by the Gang of Four and Deng Xiaoping, Hua ordered the arrest of the Gang of Four just days after Mao’s death. The influence of Deng triumphed soon afterward.
In 1977 Hua allowed Deng to be rehabilitated and restored to his former position as vice premier. In 1980 Hua resigned the premiership to Zhao Ziyang, a follower of Deng, citing as his reason the CCP’s policy against officials holding high posts in both the party and the government. In June 1981 Hua was replaced as party chairman by Hu Yaobang, also a Deng supporter. Hua remained a member of Central Committee of the CCP until he resigned in 2002.
Hua Guofeng died on 20 August, 2008 at the age of 87.
In today’s China, Hua Guofeng was largely forgotten about by both the Chinese public and the government with many people claiming to have either not knowing or never heard of who he is.