death_date children nationality blankname birth_date signature term_end death_place leader imagesize term_start spouse namedata image name caption deputy predecessor birth_place party office successor article_title
20 august 2008 su hua su bin su ling su li chinese chairman 16 february 1921 hua guofeng signature.svg 28 october 1976 june 1981 september 1980 28 june 1981 7 beijing , china himself deng xiaoping deng xiaoping mao zedong himself deng xiaoping himself 180px 7 7 april 1976 october 1976 4 february 1976 6 october 1976 han zhijun -lrb- zh-hans 韩芝俊 -rrb- mao zedong hua guofeng-1 . jpg hua guofeng hua guofeng during his visit to romania in 1978 ye jianying deng xiaoping deng xiaoping mao zedong zhou enlai mao zedong jiaocheng county , shanxi , china communist party of china chairman of china premier of the people 's republic of china of chairman of the cpc central military commission first vice chairman the of the communist party of china central committee of the communist party hu yaobang zhao ziyang deng xiaoping hua guofeng

hua guofeng

su zhu -lrb- 16 february 1921 -- 20 august 2008 -rrb- , better known by the `` nom de guerre '' hua guofeng , was mao zedong 's designated successor as the paramount leader and premier of china , also the chairman of the communist party of china .
a regional official in hunan between 1949 and 1971 , he became the head of the party leadership in the province during the latter stages of the cultural revolution .
hua was elevated to the national stage in early 1976 , and was known for his loyalty to mao .
upon zhou enlai 's death in january 1976 , hua succeeded zhou as premier of the people 's republic of china and first vice chairman of the communist party of china .
after mao 's death , hua took on the titles of chairman of the communist party of china and the chairman of the central military commission , to the surprise and dismay of jiang qing and the rest of the gang of four .
hua is the only leader to have simultaneously held the three highest offices of china -- leading the communist party , state council and the central military commission .
on 6 october 1976 , hua brought the cultural revolution to an end and ousted the gang of four from political power by arranging for their arrests in beijing .
he attempted moderate reforms and reversing some of the excesses of cultural revolution-era policies .
however , because of his insistence on continuing the maoist line , he was himself outmaneuvered in december 1978 by deng xiaoping , a pragmatic reformer , who forced hua into early retirement .
as hua faded into political obscurity , he continued to insist on the correctness of maoist principles .
he is remembered as a largely benign transitional figure in modern chinese political history .
