Mao Zedong's successor Hua Guofeng dies

BEIJING (AFP) - Hua Guofeng, who succeeded Mao Zedong as Chairman of China’s ruling Communist Party and briefly ruled the country, died Wednesday at the age of 87, state media reported.

State television CCTV and the official Xinhua news agency said Hua - one of the last of the revolutionary old guard - died in Beijing from an unspecified illness.

Hua spent a brief period at the helm of the Communist Party after Mao’s death in 1976, but was eased out of power a few years later by Deng Xiaoping, who introduced reforms that opened up China’s economy.

An official statement quoted by Xinhua praised Hua as “an outstanding CPC (Communist Party) member, a long-tested and loyal Communist fighter and a proletarian revolutionary who once held important leading posts in the CPC and the government.”

Delia Davin, professor emeritus of Chinese Studies at Leeds University, said he was someone “to whom history happened”.