Talk about your falls from grace: the sad and twisted tale of Chairman Hua Guofeng. 30 years ago today, the Chinese government announced Mao’s death to the world and Hua Guofeng was officially elevated to the title of Chairman of the People’s Republic of China. Why Hua? Because Mao’s last words, according to, uh, Hua himself were: “With you in charge, I can rest easy.”
Unfortunately, Hua went from busting up the Gang of Four and having his picture hung in Tiananmen Square right next to Mao to being shown a nice gold watch and having to turn in the key to the executive squatter at the Great Hall of the People all in a short four years. With Hua in charge, Mao might have rested easy, but with Deng in charge, Hua was made redundant. If you’ve ever seen the movie Office Space, there’s a sad note of “Milton” hanging around Hua’s later career as they shuffled him from title to title until finally unburdening him of his last official responsibility, rank and file member of the central committee, in 2002.
Poor Hua is forgotten. Our lower-division Chinese history survey never even mentions him. Ask a Chinese, “Hua Guofeng: