Mao's successor Hua Guofeng passes away

Hua Guofeng, who succeeded Mao Zedong as chairman of China's ruling Communist Party, has died at the age of 87 in Beijing, state media reported on Wednesday.

Hua died of an illness in China's capital at 12:50 Wednesday afternoon, the official Xinhua news agency said, without saying what the illness was.

The news was also announced on China's central television news channel, but gave no more details about the cause of his death.

Hua, one of the last of the revolutionary old guard, spent a brief period at the helm of the Communist Party after Mao's death in 1976, before being eased out of power a few years later by Deng Xiaoping who introduced reforms that opened up China's economy.

Hua had risen rapidly through the ranks under Mao's reign, from an obscure cadre in central Hunan province to party chief 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" that included Mao's widow Jiang Qing.

But Deng ousted Hua, who was determined to continue the Maoist line, and replaced him with younger men more attuned to his own ideas of economic reforms in top party and government posts.

In 1980, he was replaced as premier by Zhao Ziyang, and by Hu Yaobang as party chairman in 1981 -- two of Deng's proteges who were dedicated to economic reform.

At the 12th party congress in 1982, Hua's political fall culminated in him losing his politburo seat, but he remained as one of the members of the central committee.

From that time, he stayed away from the public eye and it was not known what he thought of the changes that shook China in the decades that followed.