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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Mao's successor Hua Guofeng dies | Mao's successor Hua Guofeng dies |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| Hua Guofeng, who succeeded Mao Zedong as chairman of China's Communist Party, has died, state media is reporting. | Hua Guofeng, who succeeded Mao Zedong as chairman of China's Communist Party, has died, state media is reporting. |
| Xinhua news agency said 87-year-old Hua died in the Chinese capital after suffering from an unspecified illness. | Xinhua news agency said 87-year-old Hua died in the Chinese capital after suffering from an unspecified illness. |
| Hua took over as chairman after Mao's death in 1976 and is credited with helping to end the Cultural Revolution. | |
| But Hua was himself quickly pushed aside by radical reformer Deng Xiaoping. His period as chairman ended formally in 1981. | But Hua was himself quickly pushed aside by radical reformer Deng Xiaoping. His period as chairman ended formally in 1981. |
| However, unlike former leaders who were purged and exiled to remote villages, Hua remained in Beijing and on the party's Central Committee. | However, unlike former leaders who were purged and exiled to remote villages, Hua remained in Beijing and on the party's Central Committee. |
| 'Heart at ease' | |
| "Because of an illness that could not be cured, Hua died on 20 August at 1250 in Beijing, at the age of 87," the official Xinhua news agency said in a brief report. | |
| It was under Hua's chairmanship that members of the so-called Gang of Four - including Mao's widow Jiang Qing - were arrested. | |
| They had been blamed for the excesses that accompanied the decade-long Cultural Revolution. | |
| Mao was said to have told him on his deathbed: "With you in charge my heart is at ease." | |
| But Deng Xiaoping was already manoeuvring to replace him, and Hua was effectively stripped of his powers in 1978. |