Hua Guofeng (born Su Zhu (); 16 February 1921 – 20 August 2008;Profile of Hua Guofeng also spelled as Hua Kuo-fengWade, Nigel. "MAO's Widow Arrested." Daily Telegraph, 12 Oct. 1976, pp. +. The Telegraph Historical Archive. Accessed 21 June 2025.) 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.Ye Yonglie, 邓小平改变中国1978：中国命运大转折 (Deng Xiaoping Changed China-1978: China's Destiny Turned, pp. 108-141, Sichuan People's Publishing House, 2008 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.
Early life
Born in Jiaocheng, Shanxi, the fourth son of a family originally from Fan County, Henan, Hua lost his father at the age of seven. He studied at the Jiaocheng County Commercial School and joined the CCP in 1938, during the Second Sino–Japanese War.Palmowski, Jan: "Hua Guofeng" in A Dictionary of Contemporary World History. Oxford University Press, 2004. Like many Communists of the era who took on revolutionary names, he changed his name to Huá Guófēng as an abbreviation of "" (). After having served as a soldier in the 8th Route Army for 12 years under the command of Marshal Zhu De, he was appointed propaganda chief for the Jiaocheng County Party Committee in 1947, during the Chinese Civil War.
Hua moved with the victorious PLA to Hunan in 1948, where he married Han Zhijun, and would remain in that province until 1971. He was appointed Party Secretary for Xiangyin County in August 1949, just before the establishment of the People's Republic of China in October of that year. In 1952, he was appointed secretary of Xiangtan Special District, which included Mao's hometown, Shaoshan. In this role, he built a memorial hall dedicated to Mao. When Mao visited the site, in June 1959, he was favorably impressed.Wang, James C.F., Contemporary Chinese Politics: An Introduction (Prentice-Hall, New Jersey: 1980), p. 36. Mao Zedong first met Hua in 1955, and was impressed by his simplicity.
Because the Governor of Hunan, General Cheng Qian, was not a communist (he belonged to the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, a left-wing nationalist faction of the KMT that collaborated with the CCP), Hua gradually came to exercise more and more power within the province, being named Vice Governor in 1958.
Hua participated in the 1959 Lushan Conference (an enlarged plenary session of the CCP Central Committee) as a member of the Hunan Provincial Party delegation, and wrote two investigative reports fully defending all of Mao's policies. Hua's influence increased with the Cultural Revolution, as he supported it and led the movement in Hunan. He organized the preparation for the establishment of the local Revolutionary Committee in 1967, of which he was a deputy chairman. In December 1970, he was elected Chairman of the Revolutionary Committee as well as First Secretary of the CCP Hunan Committee.
He was elected a full member of the 9th Central Committee in 1969.
At the center of power
Hua was called to Beijing to direct Zhou Enlai's State Council staff office in 1971, but only stayed for a few months before returning to his previous post in Hunan. Later that year, he was appointed as the most junior of the seven-member committee investigating the Lin Biao Affair, a sign of the strong trust Mao had in him. Hua was re-elected as a full member of the 10th Central Committee in 1973 and elevated to membership in the Politburo; in the same year, he was put in charge of agricultural development by Zhou Enlai.
In 1973, Mao named Hua Minister of Public Security and Vice Premier, thus giving him control of police and security forces. Hua's rising influence was confirmed by his being chosen to deliver a speech on modernizing agriculture in October of that year, which echoed the views of Zhou Enlai.Wang, James C.F., Contemporary Chinese Politics: An Introduction (Prentice-Hall, New Jersey: 1980), p. 37.
Zhou Enlai died on 8 January 1976, at a time when Deng Xiaoping's reformist alliance was not yet strong enough to stand up to both the ailing Mao Zedong and his Cultural Revolution allies, the Gang of Four (Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Hongwen, and Yao Wenyuan). A week after reading the late premier's eulogy, Deng left Beijing along with several close allies for the relative safety of Guangzhou.Hollingworth, Clare, Mao and the Men Against Him (Jonathan Cape, London: 1985), p. 291ff
Although Mao Zedong had reportedly wanted to appoint Zhang Chunqiao as Zhou Enlai's successor, he ended up naming Hua as acting Premier, who was appointed without authorization from the National People's Congress. At the same time, the media controlled by the Gang of Four began denouncing Deng once again (he had been purged during the Cultural Revolution, and was only returned to power in 1973). Popular affection for Zhou was underestimated, however, leading to the Tiananmen Incident, a confrontation between the radicals' militia allies and Beijing citizens seeking to honor Zhou during the traditional Qingming festival. At the same time, Hua delivered speeches on the "official line for criticizing Deng Xiaoping", which were approved by Mao and the Party Central Committee.
During the Tiananmen Incident of 1976, thousands of people protested at the militia's removal of wreaths honoring Zhou in front of the Monument to the People's Heroes. Vehicles were burned, offices ransacked and there were reports of many injuries and deaths.Hollingworth, Clare, Mao and the Men Against Him (Jonathan Cape, London: 1985), pp. 297–298 In the aftermath, Deng Xiaoping was blamed for inciting the protests and stripped of all his party and government posts, though his party membership was retained at Mao's behest. Shortly thereafter, Hua was elevated to First Vice Chairman of the CCP Central Committee and Premier of the State Council.
Following the 1976 Tangshan earthquake in July, Hua visited the devastated area and helped direct relief efforts there, while the Gang of Four was absent.
Removing the Gang of Four Mao died on 9 September 1976 and Hua, as both the second highest-ranking member of the CCP and premier, led the national commemorations in Beijing in his honor in the days that followed, and was the keynote speaker during the national memorial observance in the capital's Tiananmen Square. At the time, the highest power organ of the country, the Politburo Standing Committee, consisted of Hua, Marshal Ye Jianying, Zhang Chunqiao, and Wang Hongwen; Ye was in semi-retirement, and Zhang and Wang were part of the Gang of Four.
Hua knew that in the post-Mao power vacuum, his position vis-a-vis the Gang of Four's would be a zero-sum game. That is, if the Gang of Four were not removed through use of force, the Gang might attempt to oust him pre-emptively. Hua made contact with Ye days after Mao's death to discuss plans about the Gang of Four. Ye had grown disillusioned with the Gang before Mao's death, so he and Hua came to a quick agreement to act against the Gang.
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. The group discussed ways to remove the Gang, including holding a Politburo or Central Committee meeting to oust them through established party procedure, but the idea was shot down because the Central Committee was, at the time, composed of many of the Gang's supporters. Eventually, the group decided to use force.
The members of the Gang were arrested on 6 October, soon after midnight. Hua had summoned Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Hongwen, and Yao Wenyuan to a meeting at Zhongnanhai, ostensibly to discuss the fifth volume of Mao's "Selected Works". They were arrested while walking into the meeting at Huairen Hall. According to Hua's own recollection of events, he and Marshal Ye Jianying were the only two leaders present at the "meeting", awaiting the arrival of the members of the Gang. Upon the arrest of each of the three, Hua personally announced to them the reasons for their detention. Hua said that they had engaged in "anti-party and anti-socialist" acts and "conspired to usurp power". Jiang Qing and Mao Yuanxin were arrested at their respective residences.Hsin, Chi. The Case of the Gang of Four. Revised ed. Hong Kong: Cosmo, 1978. Print.
A task force led by Geng Biao occupied the headquarters of the party's main propaganda organs, which were considered a part of the Gang's turf at the time. Another group was dispatched to stabilize Shanghai, the Gang's main regional power base. At an emergency Politburo meeting the next day, Hua Guofeng was appointed as chairman of the CCP and the chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the governing body of People's Liberation Army (PLA). Hua's accession to the top leadership was legitimized by a quote from Mao saying "With you in charge, I am at ease", published afterwards of the purge of the Gang, used as an evidence of Mao's "boundless trust" on Hua. The PLA had been critical to Hua's appointment.
Party Chairman and Premier
Following the ouster of the Gang of Four a new ruling triumvirate was established consisting of Hua, Marshal Ye Jianying, and chief economic planner Li Xiannian. The Cultural Revolution had ended, although Hua did not repudiate Mao and attributed all of the failures of the Cultural Revolution solely to the Gang of Four.
Almost immediately, a new power struggle began between Hua and Deng Xiaoping. This struggle was decisively resolved in Deng's favor in December 1978, which is generally taken as the start of the reform and opening up.
Domestic politics
Hua was not broadly known to the Chinese public at the time of his appointment.