BEIJING, Aug 20: Hua Guofeng, who succeeded Mao Zedong as chairman of China’s ruling Communist Party and briefly ruled the country, died on 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 member, a long-tested and loyal Communist fighter and a proletarian revolutionary who once held important leading posts in the CPC and the government.”

Born in 1921, Hua rose rapidly through the ranks under Mao’s reign from an obscure cadre to premier in 1976 after the death of Mao’s premier Zhou Enlai.

But he became party chief that same year after Mao’s death, based on the Great Helmsman’s simple remark, “With you in charge, I am at ease.”

At one time, Hua was head of the party, the government and the armed forces, having courted the faction led by Deng in order to eject the notorious “Gang of Four” — including Mao’s widely-reviled widow Jiang Qing — who were blamed for the ‘excesses’ of the decade-long Cultural Revolution.

As such, he is credited with ending that turbulent time of power struggles and political instability in China.—AFP