Hua Guofeng and Related Topics

Cultural Revolution

Sociopolitical movement in China from 1966 until Mao Zedong's death in 1976, launched by Mao, the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

People in the countryside working at night to produce steel during the Great Leap Forward

The purge of General Luo Ruiqing solidified the Army's loyalty to Mao.

Mao waved to the "revolutionary masses" on the riverside before his "swim across the Yangtze"

A struggle session of Wang Guangmei, the wife of Liu Shaoqi.

Mao Zedong and Lin Biao surrounded by rallying Red Guards in Beijing. Source: China Pictorial

Tiananmen Square on September 15, 1966, the occasion of Chairman Mao's third of eight mass rallies with Red Guards in 1966. Source: China Pictorial

The remains of Ming Dynasty Wanli Emperor at the Ming tombs. Red Guards dragged the remains of the Wanli Emperor and Empresses to the front of the tomb, where they were posthumously "denounced" and burned.

The Cemetery of Confucius was attacked by Red Guards in November 1966.

Propaganda oil painting of Mao during the Cultural Revolution (1967)

Marshal Lin Biao was constitutionally confirmed as Mao's successor in 1969.

Graffiti with Lin Biao's foreword to Mao's Little Red Book, Lin's name (lower right) was later scratched out, presumably after his death.

Jiang Qing (left), who was the wife of Mao Zedong and a member of the Gang of Four, received the Red Guards in Beijing with Premier Zhou Enlai (center) and Kang Sheng. They were all holding the Little Red Book (Quotations from Mao) in their hands.

Deng Xiaoping became the paramount leader of China in 1978. He started "Boluan Fanzheng" that brought the country back to order, and initiated China's historic Reforms and Opening up.

A struggle session of Xi Zhongxun, the father of Xi Jinping (September 1967). Xi Zhongxun was labelled as an "anti-Party element". However, since late 2012, Xi Jinping and his allies have attempted to play down the disaster of the Cultural Revolution and reversed many reforms since the Boluan Fanzheng period, sparking concerns of a new Cultural Revolution.

Quotations of Mao Zedong on a street wall of Wuxuan County, one of the centers of Guangxi massacre and cannibalism during the Cultural Revolution.

The Cultural Revolution Cemetery in Chongqing, China. At least 1,700 people were killed during the violent faction clash, with 400 to 500 of them buried in this cemetery.

The Tibetan Panchen Lama during a struggle session.

Struggle session of Sampho Tsewang Rigzin and his wife during the Cultural Revolution.

A 1968 map of Beijing showing streets and landmarks renamed during the Cultural Revolution. Andingmen Inner Street became "Great Leap Forward Road", Taijichang Street became the "Road for Eternal Revolution", Dongjiaominxiang was renamed "Anti-Imperialist Road", Beihai Park was renamed "Worker-Peasant-Soldier Park" and Jingshan Park became "Red Guard Park." Most of the Cultural Revolution-era name changes were later reversed.

Yao Tongbin, one of China's foremost missile scientists, was beaten to death by a mob in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution (1968). This caused Zhou Enlai to order special protection for key technical experts.

Remnants of a banner containing slogans from the Cultural Revolution in Anhui.

The ballet The Red Detachment of Women, one of the Model Dramas promoted during the Cultural Revolution.

Posters from the Cultural Revolution period

Buddhist statues defaced during the Cultural Revolution.

The central section of this wall shows the faint remnant marks of a propaganda slogan that was added during the Cultural Revolution, but has since been removed. The slogan read "Boundless faith that in Chairman Mao."

In December 1978, Deng Xiaoping became the new paramount leader of China, replacing Chairman Hua Guofeng, and started the "Boluan Fanzheng" program which gradually dismantled the Maoist policies associated with the Cultural Revolution, and brought the country back to order.

Deng Xiaoping

Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to 1992.

Deng's name is spelled Teng Hi Hien on this employment card from the Hutchinson shoe factory in Châlette-sur-Loing, France, where he worked on two occasions as seen from the dates, eight months in 1922 and again in 1923 when he was fired after one month, with the bottom annotation reading "refused to work, do not take him back"

Deng Xiaoping with He Long (middle) and Zhu De (right) (1949)

Deng Xiaoping (left) met with the 14th Dalai Lama (right) in 1954

Deng Xiaoping (left) with future president Li Xiannian (center) and Premier Zhou Enlai in 1963

Deng Xiaoping (centre) with U.S. president Gerald Ford (left), 1975

Deng Xiaoping (left) and his wife Zhuo Lin (right) are briefed by Johnson Space Center director Christopher C. Kraft (extreme right)

Deng Xiaoping billboard in Lizhi Park, Shenzhen, one of China's first special economic zones and is regarded as China's Silicon Valley

A model reconstruction of Deng Xiaoping's 1984 meeting with UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Shenzhen

A patrol boat in use during Deng Xiaoping's southern tour of 1992

Deng Xiaoping's ashes lie in state in Beijing whose banner reads "Memorial Service of Comrade Deng Xiaoping", February 1997

Deng Xiaoping billboard in Shenzhen, Guangdong

Deng Xiaoping billboard in Qingdao, Shandong

Deng Xiaoping billboard in Dujiangyan, Sichuan

Deng Xiaoping billboard in Lijiang, Yunnan

Following Mao's death in September 1976, Deng outmaneuvered the late chairman's chosen successor Hua Guofeng and became the de facto leader of China in December 1978 at the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee.

"Decisively Throw Out the Wang-Zhang-Jiang-Yao Anti-Party Clique!"

Gang of Four

Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party officials.

Their fall did not amount to a rejection of the Cultural Revolution as such, but it was organized by the new leader, Premier Hua Guofeng, and others who had risen during that period.

Chinese Communist Party

Founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Site of the first CCP Congress, in the former Shanghai French Concession

Flag of the HistoryChinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army

Mao Zedong declared the establishment of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949.

Chinese communists celebrate Joseph Stalin's birthday, 1949.

A temporary monument displayed in Changsha, Hunan Province, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the CCP's founding

A monument dedicated to Karl Marx (left) and Friedrich Engels (right) in Shanghai

A billboard advertising Xi Jinping Thought in Shenzhen, Guangdong

The 18th National Congress, convened in November 2012

Front cover of the Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party

Xi Jinping (second from left) with Enrique Peña Nieto (second from right), the former President of Mexico and a leading member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party

Following Mao's death in 1976, a power struggle between CCP chairman Hua Guofeng and vice-chairman Deng Xiaoping erupted.

Zhou Enlai

The first Premier of the People's Republic of China serving from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 January 1976.

Zhou Enlai as a student in Nankai Middle School

Zhou Enlai as the director of the Political Department at Whampoa Military Academy (1924)

Chiang Kai-shek (center) and Zhou Enlai (left) with cadets at Whampoa Military Academy (1924)

Zhou (far left) with Mao Zedong (center-left) in Yan'an (1935)

Zhou with Communist general Ye Jianying (left) and Kuomintang official Zhang Zhong (center) in Xi'an 1937, illustrating the alliance between the two parties which was the outcome of the Xi'an Incident

Zhou (left) with his wife Deng Yingchao (center) and Sun Weishi

Zhou Enlai and Sun Weishi in Moscow, 1939.

The Marshall Mission (1946), left to right: Zhang Qun, George C. Marshall, Zhou Enlai

Zhou with Kim Il-sung at the signing of the Sino-North Korean Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty in 1961

Zhou Enlai and Sanusi Hardjadinata, the chairman of the Bandung Conference.

Zhou and his wife Deng at the Badaling section of the Great Wall of China (1955)

Zhou, shown here with Henry Kissinger and Mao Zedong.

Zhou shakes hands with President Richard Nixon upon Nixon's arrival in China in February 1972.

Zhou at the outset of the Cultural Revolution (with Lin Liheng, daughter of Lin Biao)

Statue of Zhou and Deng in the Memorial to Zhou Enlai and Deng Yingchao in Tianjin.

A bronze statue of Zhou in Nanjing, wearing a Western suit (something he never wore after his youth)

Although Zhou was succeeded by Hua Guofeng as First Vice Chairman and designated successor, Zhou's ally Deng Xiaoping was able to outmaneuver the Gang of Four politically and took Hua's place as paramount leader by 1978.

Mao Zedong

Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC), which he led as the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from the establishment of the PRC in 1949 until his death in 1976.

Mao Zedong's childhood home in Shaoshan, in 2010, by which time it had become a tourist destination

Students in Beijing rallying during the May Fourth Movement

Location of the first Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in July 1921, in Xintiandi, former French Concession, Shanghai

Mao Zedong around the time of his work at Guangzhou's PMTI in 1925

Third Plenum of the KMT Central Executive Committee in March 1927. Mao is third from the right in the second row.

Chinese Communist revolutionaries in the 1920s

Military parade on the occasion of the founding of a Chinese Soviet Republic in 1931

Zhang Guotao (left) and Mao Zedong in Yan'an, 1937

In an effort to defeat the Japanese, Mao (left) agreed to collaborate with Chiang (right).

PLA troops, supported by captured M5 Stuart light tanks, attacking the Nationalist lines in 1948

Mao Zedong declares the founding of the modern People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949

Mao with his fourth wife, Jiang Qing, called "Madame Mao", 1946

Mao at Joseph Stalin's 70th birthday celebration in Moscow, December 1949

Mao and Zhou Enlai meeting with Dalai Lama (right) and Panchen Lama (left) to celebrate Tibetan New Year, Beijing, 1955

Photo of Mao Zedong sitting, published in "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung", ca. 1955

Mao with Nikita Khrushchev, Ho Chi Minh and Soong Ching-ling during a state dinner in Beijing, 1959

Early in the Great Leap Forward, commune members were encouraged to eat their fill in communal canteens, but many canteens shut down as they ran out of food and fuel.

Mao with Henry Kissinger and Zhou Enlai, Beijing, 1972

U.S. President Gerald Ford watches as Henry Kissinger shakes hands with Mao during their visit to China, December 2, 1975

A public appearance of Chairman Mao and Lin Biao among Red Guards, in Beijing, during the Cultural Revolution (November 1966)

Statue of young Mao in Changsha, the capital of Hunan

In 1978, the classroom of a kindergarten in Shanghai putting up portraits of then- Chairman Hua Guofeng and former Chairman Mao Zedong

Mao greets U.S. President Richard Nixon during his visit to China in 1972.

Mao with Jiang Qing and daughter Li Na in the 1940s

Mao Zedong with his nephew Mao Yuanxin, and daughters Li Min (second from left) and Li Na

Mao's calligraphy: a bronze plaque of a poem by Li Bai. (Chinese: 白帝城毛澤東手書李白詩銅匾 )

A fifth volume, which brought the timeline up to 1957, was briefly issued during the leadership of Hua Guofeng, but subsequently withdrawn from circulation for its perceived ideological errors.

Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party

Committee consisting of the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

By Mao's death in September 1976, the only members who still attended meetings were Hua Guofeng, Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Hongwen, and Ye Jianying, with Zhang and Wang being members of the Gang of Four.

Jiang Qing

Chinese communist revolutionary, actress, and major political figure during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976).

Jiang Qing on the cover of a film magazine

Mao and Jiang writing together in Yan'an, 1938

Poster showing Jiang promoting the fine arts during the Cultural Revolution while holding Mao's Little Red Book. The slogan reads: "The invincible thoughts of Mao Zedong illuminate the stages of revolutionary art!"

She was arrested in October 1976 by Hua Guofeng and his allies, and was subsequently condemned by party authorities.

Hu Yaobang

High-ranking official of the People's Republic of China.

Hu Yaobang, Zhu De, and Liao Chengzhi at the National Youth Congress in 1953 (left to right)

(from left) Zhao Ziyang, Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng at Hu Yaobang's memorial service in the Great Hall of the People, on 22 April 1989

Hu opposed Hua Guofeng's "Two Whatevers" policy, and was an important supporter of Deng Xiaoping's ascent to power.

Zhao (top left) pictured with Mao Zedong in Wuhan, January 1966

Zhao Ziyang

Chinese politician.

Zhao was hosted by US president Ronald Reagan at the White House on 10 January 1984 as part of a broader effort to improve China's relations with the West.

Zhao Ziyang's final burial site in 2019, with his son on the right.

After ousting Hua Guofeng as China's "paramount leader" in 1978, Deng Xiaoping recognized the "Sichuan Experience" as a model for Chinese economic reform.