page_title: Hua Guofeng
section_title: Party Chairman and Premier
hierarchical_section_title: Hua Guofeng / Party Chairman and Premier
caption_attribution_description: English: Mainland Chinese leader Hua Guofeng with Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during a state visit in Iran Deutsch: Der chinesische Parteichef Hua Guofeng auf Staatsbesuch in Iran, 1979 Schah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Schahbanu Farah Pahlavi Français&#160;: Hua Guofeng en visite d'état en Iran avec Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Українська: Китайський лідер Хуа Гофен з шахом Мохаммадом Пахлаві протягом державних відвідин Ірану
context_page_description: Hua Guofeng was a Chinese politician who served as Chairman of the Communist Party of China and Premier of the People's Republic of China. Hua held the top offices of the government, party, and the military after Premier Zhou and Chairman Mao's death, but was forced out of major political power by more influential party leaders by June 1981 and subsequently retreated from the political scene.
  Originally from Shanxi province, Hua rose to power as a regional official in Hunan between 1949 and 1971, first serving as the prefecture Party Committee Secretary of the Xiangtan, Mao's home area, then as the party secretary in the province during the latter stages of the Cultural Revolution. Hua was elevated to the national stage in early 1976, and was mainly known for his unswerving loyalty to Mao. After the death of Zhou Enlai, Mao elevated Hua to the position of Premier of the State Council, overseeing government work, and of First Vice Chairman of the Communist Party, which made him Mao's designated successor.
  On 6 October 1976, shortly after the death of Mao on 9 September, Hua removed the Gang of Four from political power by arranging for their arrests in Beijing.
context_section_description: During his relatively short leadership, Hua was credited for quickly ousting the Gang of Four from political power and thus became the leader whose emergence marked the end of the Cultural Revolution. The jubilation following the incarceration of the Gang of Four and the popularity of the new ruling triumvirate (Hua Guofeng, Ye Jianying, and Li Xiannian, a temporary alliance of necessity) were succeeded by calls for the restoration to power of Deng Xiaoping and the elimination of leftist influence throughout the political system. Hua's economic and political programs involved the restoration of Soviet-style industrial planning and party control similar to that followed by China before the Great Leap Forward. However, this model was rejected by supporters of Deng Xiaoping, who argued for a more market-based economic system. This argument was decisively resolved in Deng's favor in late 1978, which is generally taken as the start of the era of Chinese economic reform. Hua also attempted reforming state protocol as a method of elevating his prestige. In 1978 all party meetings were to hang portraits of Mao and Hua side-by-side, including at the National People's Congress and CPC Party Congress meetings. All schools were required to hang Hua's picture next to Mao's. Hua also changed the Chinese national anthem to incorporate Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party, switching the tone from being war-rallying to purely Communist propaganda. These lyrics were eventually rejected. Hua Guofeng continued to use the terminology of the Cultural Revolution, but he criticized certain aspects of it, including the education reform, the revolutionary committees' activity and other excesses, blaming the Gang of Four. State media referred to him as "the wise leader".
  In February 1978, the party met to approve a new state constitution, which Hua was heavily involved in drafting. This document, which attempted to restore some rule of law and planning mechanisms from the PRC's original 1956 constitution, still contained references to continuous revolution and proletarian internationalism; it was replaced only four years later with a different constitution that dropped all mentions of Maoism. Hua and other party conservatives such as Li Xiannian also drafted an ambitious ten-year economic plan which sought to create a Soviet-style economy based around heavy industry and energy, but it was quickly scrapped in favor of a cheaper and more doable five-year plan which prioritized light industry and consumer goods.
  Hua's weak personality and continued loyalty to Maoism did not inspire a nation and party leadership weary of the Cultural Revolution, and he quickly came to be seen as a Mao sycophant with no real ideas of his own. His slogan "Whatever Chairman Mao said, we will say and whatever Chairman Mao did, we will do" was soon referred to sarcastically as "the Two Whatevers" and became one of the major reasons for his fall from grace. Although Hua later distanced himself from Maoism and began to support some reformist ideas, his unrealistic economic plans proved a further strike against him.
  On October 1979, Hua went on a European tour, the first of its kind for a Chinese leader after 1949. He traveled to West Germany and France. On 28 October Hua visited the United Kingdom and met with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The two engaged in friendly talks and discussed the future of Hong Kong, which was a British Overseas Territory at the time.
  Chairman Hua visited Derby's British Rail Railway Technical Centre to observe the development of the Advanced Passenger Train. His visit coincided with the donation of the Chinese Government Railways Steam Locomotive 4-8-4 KF Class No 7 to the National Railway Museum in York. Chairman Hua also went to a farm in Oxfordshire and visited Oxford University.
  Hua was one of the last foreigners to visit Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, before he was overthrown in 1979.
  His interpretation of the Three Worlds Theory, leading to a general rapprochement with Western powers, divided Maoist parties throu
caption: Hua Guofeng with Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during a state visit in Iran, 1978[14]
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "MX860 series", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "MP Navigator EX 2.1", "Image DateTime": "2009:10:22 19:45:45", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "210", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "462", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9183", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:10:22 19:44:13", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "963", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "681", "EXIF FileSource": "Reflection Print Scanner", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto"}