Hua Kuo-Feng

Born 1921, in Ch’aoch’eng District, Shansi Province. Chinese state and political figure.

In 1949, Hua embarked on a career of political and government work in Hunan Province. From 1959 to 1966 he was secretary of the Hunan provincial committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). In 1964 he became a deputy to the All-China National People’s Congress. In 1967 he was part of a group that organized a revolutionary committee in Hunan, and from 1968 to 1970 he served as the committee’s deputy chairman. In December 1970, Hua was appointed first secretary of the Hunan provincial committee of the CPC, acting chairman of the Hunan revolutionary committee, and political commissar of the Hunan military district.

Hua was elected to the Central Committee of the CPC in April 1969. In 1971 and 1972 he served on a commission of the Central Committee that investigated the Lin Piao case. In August 1973 he was elected to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPC. Hua became deputy premier of the State Council in January 1975 and served as minister of public security of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from January 1975 to November 1977. In February 1976 he was appointed acting premier of the State Council of the PRC.

In April 1976 a resolution of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPC named Hua first deputy chairman of the Central Committee of the CPC and premier of the State Council of the PRC. In October 1976 he became chairman of the Central Committee of the CPC and chairman of the Central Committee’s Military Commission. At the Eleventh Congress of the CPC in 1977, Hua read a report of the Central Committee that reaffirmed the fundamental Maoist goals of Chinese domestic and foreign policy.