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Comment (BEIJING — Hua Guofeng, handpicked by a dying Mao Zedong in 1976 to succeed him as Chinese Communist Party chairman but later toppled by reformist leader Deng Xiaoping, died in Beijing on Wednesday.
“Because of an illness that could not be cured, Hua died on Aug. 20 at 12:50 p.m. in Beijing, at the age of 87,” the official Xinhua said in a brief report.
Mr. Hua, once fondly referred to by state media as the “Wise Leader”, became Party chairman in September 1976 after Mao was quoted as saying on his death bed: “With you in charge my heart is at ease”.
Weeks later, Mr. Hua approved a military plot to arrest Mao's widow, Jiang Qing, and other members of her reviled Gang of Four who were blamed for Mao's excesses during the chaotic decade-long Cultural Revolution.
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