BIO-HUA GUOFENG-COMMUNISM

Photo released 01 November 1976 in Beijing by Chinese official news agency with a caption saying: "One million Peking armymen and people hold grand mass rally in warm celebration of comrade Hua Guofeng's appointment as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee (CC) and its military commission and of great victory in shattering scheme of the "Gang of Four" anti-party clique to usurp Party and State power." Hua Guofeng (born in 1920) who had been eased out of power in the late 1970s despite having been anointed by Chairman Mao Zedong as his heir, 18 September 1997 hung on his seat on the CC of the CCP during the 15the congress of the party. He is among the last of the revolutionary old guard that continues in the CC of the Party. Hua had risen rapidly in the 1970s from being an obscure cadre in Hunan, Mao's home province to the top job of party chief after Mao's death, based on the Great Helmsman's simple remark, "with you in charge, I am at ease". At one time Hua was head of the party, the government and the armed forces, having courted the moderate faction led by the then disgraced Deng Xiaoping in order to eject the ultra-leftist "Gang of Four" that included Mao's widow Jiang Qing. CHINA OUT (Photo by XINHUA / AFP) (Photo by -/XINHUA/AFP via Getty Images)