Beijing Zhongnanhai held a high-profile symposium on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mao Zedong’s successor Hua Guofeng last weekend, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Wang Huning and Han Zheng attended the symposium at the same Time in a rare event, calling Hua Guofeng a “long-tested and loyal communist fighter” and “to learn from his firm party spirit and loyalty to the Party The political virtue of loyalty to the party”. Some mainland scholars interpreted this as a political signal to deny Deng Xiaoping’s line.
On February 16 this year, Hua Guofeng, the former chairman of the CPC Central Committee, celebrated his 100th birthday. In a rare move, the top echelon of the Communist Party held a forum for Hua Guofeng, attended by Wang Huning and Han Zheng of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party’s Politburo, where Wang made a new “historic assessment” of the elderly Communist Party politician. Wang Huning first praised Hua Guofeng as “an excellent member of the Communist Party of China, a long-tested and loyal communist fighter who has made important contributions to the cause of the Party and the people”. And also said to learn Hua Guofeng “party firmness, loyalty to the party’s political character, adhere to the original heart ……”
Wu Qiang, a former lecturer at the Department of Political Science at Tsinghua University in Beijing, believes that Beijing’s solemn commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Hua Guofeng’s birth can be considered part of the CPC’s history Education, but the propaganda for Hua Guofeng has chosen what the authorities need: “Now it is clear that Beijing is using the commentary on the commemoration of Hua Guofeng as part of the narrative of party history. One of the things we see with Hua is an emphasis on his various achievements during his tenure as Hunan (first provincial party secretary). It is basically an affirmation of the first three decades (of reform and opening up) and the continuation of the second three decades, with no sight at all of the various mistakes made by Hua Guofeng during his time in Hunan.”
Former CCP President Hua Guofeng attends the closing ceremony of the 17th National Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Oct. 21, 2007.
Analysis points to the release of a signal to repudiate Deng Xiaoping’s line
Some analysts believe that Beijing’s high-profile commemoration of Hua Guofeng and its call for party cadres to study him is a veiled repudiation of part of the line promoted by Deng Xiaoping. In response, Wu Qiang told the station, “This is a repudiation of Deng Xiaoping’s line since the past nine years, so far. Although they did not name Deng Xiaoping, the selective glorification of Hua is actually a very symbolic repudiation of Deng’s line. This is a very important signal.”
Wang Zhou, a retired lecturer at Guizhou University who has experienced the anti-rightist movement and the Cultural Revolution, said in an interview with this station that the authorities’ intention to commemorate Hua Guofeng in a high profile is obvious: “The reason is simple, to take Hua Guofeng to beat Deng Xiaoping, which is the first, and second, he thinks that Mao Zedong and Hua Guofeng are the authentic Chinese Communist Party, is the direct line is the authentic, Deng is the crooked and wild way, all this stuff is a political signal. “
Looking back at that year, Wang Zhou said, “when the fight Huaguofeng, a group of old comrades (old cadres) very thoughtful, Mao fans now want Huaguofeng to have a historical evaluation, to give the old Hua a correct status. In other words a borrowed corpse.”
Praise for Hua Guofeng’s strong party spirit and loyalty to the party
Hua Guofeng was the second Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China after Mao Zedong and the second Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China after Zhou Enlai. After the death of Mao Zedong, Hua Guofeng put forward two “everything”, that is, “all the decisions made by Chairman Mao, we are resolute to uphold; all the instructions of Chairman Mao, we have always followed”, which was strongly opposed by Deng Xiaoping and others, and finally Hua Guofeng was forced to resign.
Chinese Communist Party leaders Hua Guofeng (left) and Deng Xiaoping wait for the plane of French Prime Minister Raymond Barr at Beijing airport on January 19, 1978.
Cha Jianguo, a Beijing dissident who lived through the 10-year Cultural Revolution, said Hua Guofeng’s greatest role in the Communist Party was to help capture the Gang of Four in 1976: “Of course, after he captured the Gang of Four, he still insisted on the two ‘Where is’, and Deng Xiaoping, the reformist wing of the party, and clashed, but Hua Guofeng did not put up stubborn resistance, but accepted to resign. So at this point, Deng’s faction did not dismiss him wholesale (partially). Hua Guofeng should be a positive image for them to propagate.”
Nearly 120 people attended the symposium, with Mao Xinyu and Liu Yuan, descendants of Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi, as well as Hua Guofeng’s former friends and representatives from his hometown, invited to attend. The People’s Daily, an organ of the Communist Party of China, published Wang Huning’s speech at the symposium in honor of Hua Guofeng in two pages this Sunday (21), and Xinhua reported that Wang Huning also stressed that Hua Guofeng played a “decisive role in the struggle to crush the Gang of Four, which was the fate of the Party and the country.
Deng Xiaoping had invited Hua Guofeng to suppress the 1989 school movement but was rejected
In 1976, Hua Guofeng, with the support of Ye Jianying and others, arrested the Gang of Four, represented by Jiang Qing. Five years later, Hua was asked by Deng Xiaoping and others to resign from his post as chairman of the Communist Party and chairman of the Central Military Commission. The company’s main business is to promote the development of the company’s products and services. Afterwards, Hua Guofeng fell into obscurity and he died in August 2008 after a long illness.
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