Black and White Cat

Xinhua’s announcement of the death of Hua Guofeng is short and sweet:

Hua Guofeng, a former leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC), died on Wednesday at the age of 87.

Hua “died of illness at 12:50 p.m. on Wednesday in Beijing,” said an official statement.

Hua was “an outstanding CPC member, a long-tested and loyal Communist fighter and a proletarian revolutionary who once held important leading posts in the CPC and the government”, the statement said.

Born in 1921, Hua once served as the Chinese premier and chairman of the CPC Central Committee.

There’s a rather more informative obituary here. (Well, just about every obituary of Hua Guofeng is more informative than Xinhua’s.)

Less than a month after Mao’s funeral, Hua Guofeng ordered the arrest of Jiang Qing and the rest of the Gang of Four. His great contribution to Marxist theory was the innovative and beautifully named policy, the Two Whatevers:

“We will resolutely uphold whatever policy decisions Chairman Mao made, and unswervingly follow whatever instructions Chairman Mao gave.”*

He was quickly sidelined by Deng Xiaoping who proceeded to resolutely abandon Mao’s policies and unswervingly ignore Mao’s instructions.

Hua’s ascension to the highest position of nominal power was spontaneously and joyfully celebrated by the masses in every corner of the country, as faithfully recorded in this picture:

The people of every ethnic group in the nation ardently loved Chairman Hua:

This may have been because he harvested their crops:

…dug their coal:

…cleaned their shops:

…and gave them healthy babies:

There are many more depictions of Hua Guofeng’s love for the people and the people’s love for Hua Guofeng here.

Postscript: Although I linked to the site that I stole most of these pictures from, as Stefan Landsberger points out in the comments below, it might have been more appropriate to credit the original source - him. Sorry Stefan!

(*For some reason, the Two Whatevers reminds me of when Father Ted taught Father Jack to say “Yes” and “That would be an ecumenical matter” instead of his usual four words: “Feck!” “Arse!” “Drink!” and “Girls!”)