Hua Guofeng

Hua Guofeng (born Su Zhu (苏铸); 16 February 1921 – 20 August 2008; also spelled as Hua Kuo-feng) was a Chinese politician who served as chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and the premier of China. As the successor of Mao Zedong, Hua held the top offices of the government, party, and the military after the deaths of Mao and Premier Zhou Enlai, but was gradually forced out of power between December 1978 and June 1981, and subsequently retreated from the political limelight, though still remaining a member of the Central Committee until 2002.

Born and raised in Jiaocheng, Hua joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1938, seeing action in both the Second Sino–Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War as a guerrilla fighter. In 1948, he was appointed party secretary of Xiangtan in Hunan, which included Mao's birthplace of Shaoshan. A popular local administrator, Hua rose to become Hunan's party secretary during the Cultural Revolution, and was elevated to the national stage in the early 1970s, notably assuming control of the Ministry of Public Security in 1973 and vice premier in 1975. After the death of Zhou Enlai in January 1976, Mao elevated Hua to the positions of premier and first vice chairman of the CCP, which made him Mao's designated successor.

In October 1976, a month after Mao's death, Hua arrested and removed the Gang of Four from power with the assistance of Mao's security chief Wang Dongxing, who became one of Hua's key supporters along with vice premier and chief economic planner Li Xiannian, and Luo Qingchang, head of the intelligence services. Hua also succeeded Mao as party chairman and chairman of the Central Military Commission, becoming the first to simultaneously hold the offices of party leader, premier, and commander-in-chief, as well as the only paramount leader to hold the office of premier.

While Hua ended the Cultural Revolution's most notorious policies, such as the constant ideological campaigns, he remained generally committed to a command economy and the continuation of the Maoist line. Between December 1978 and June 1981, Deng Xiaoping and his supporters forced Hua from his position of paramount leader but allowed him to retain some titles. Hua gradually faded into political obscurity, but continued to insist on the correctness of Maoist principles.