Hua Guofeng

A great proletarian revolutionary like Chairman Mao, who weathers all kinds of revolutionary storms, overcomes every difficulty and hardship, and always identifies himself with the workers, peasants and other labouring people and stands in the van of the revolutionary movement to guide it forward, is rare indeed in the annals of the proletarian revolutionary movement. The magnificent contributions Chairman Mao made in revolutionary theory and practice are immortal.

Hua Guofeng (Chinese:华国锋) (16 February 1921 - 20 August 2008) (born Su Zhu) was a Chinese politician who served as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and Premier of the People's Republic of China. The designated successor of Mao Zedong, Hua held the top offices of the government, party, and the military after the deaths of Mao and Premier Zhou Enlai, but was gradually forced out of supreme power by a coalition of party leaders between December 1978 and June 1981, and subsequently retreated from the political limelight, though still remaining a member of the Central Committee until 2002.

Quotes

Memorial speech At Mass Memorial Meeting for Great Leader and Teacher Chairman Mao Tse-tung (18 September 1976) (excerpts)

Guided by Chairman Mao’s Marxist-Leninist line, our Party has steadily grown in strength.

The constant defeat of subversion and sabotage by imperialism, revisionism and reaction, the upholding of socialism and the consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the People’s Republic of China, a populous country with a vast territory--this is a great contribution of world historic significance made by chairman Mao Tse-tung to the present era and has at the same time provided the international national Communist movement with new experience in combating and preventing revisionism, consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat, preventing capitalist restoration and building socialism.

Source: Internet Marxists Archive

• Over the last few days, the whole party, the whole army and the people of all nationalities throughout the country have been immersed in boundless sorrow at the passing of Chairman Mao Tse-tung. The cause that our great leader devoted his whole life to is linked by flesh-and-blood ties with the masses of the people. It was under Chairman Mao’s leadership that the Chinese people who had long suffered oppression and exploitation won emancipation and became masters of the country. It was under Chairman Mao’s leadership that the disaster-plagued Chinese nation rose to its feet. The Chinese people love, trust and esteem Chairman Mao from the bottom of their hearts. The international proletariat and progressive mankind all deeply mourn the death of Chairman Mao.

• Guided by Chairman Mao’s Marxist-Leninist line, our Party has steadily grown in strength. It has developed from small groups of a few dozen communists into a party with a membership of over 30 which now leads the People’s Republic of China, into a disciplined Party armed with the theory of Marxism-Leninism, using the method of self-criticism and closely linked with the masses of the people, and into a great, glorious and correct Marxist-Leninist Party.

• In the new historical period of Socialist Revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat in China, Chairman Mao summed up both the positive and the negative experience of the international Communist movement, and made a penetrating analysis of the class relations in socialist society by applying the Marxist-Leninist theory of the unity of opposites, and pointed out that the principal contradiction in a socialist society is the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. For the first time in the history of the development of Marxism, Chairman Mao explicitly pointed out that there are still classes and class struggle after the socialist transformation of the ownership of the means of production has in the main been completed, put forward the thesis that in socialist society there are two types of contradictions--those between ourselves and the enemy and those among the people themselves, and advanced the great theory of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat.

• The constant defeat of subversion and sabotage by imperialism, revisionism and reaction, the upholding of socialism and the consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the People’s Republic of China, a populous country with a vast territory--this is a great contribution of world historic significance made by chairman Mao Tse-tung to the present era and has at the same time provided the international national Communist movement with new experience in combating and preventing revisionism, consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat, preventing capitalist restoration and building socialism.

• Chairman Mao Tse-tung was the greatest Marxist of the contemporary era. With the great boldness and vision of a proletarian revolutionary, he launched the great struggle in the international Communist movement to criticize modern revisionism with the Soviet revisionist renegade clique at the core, brought about by the vigorous development of the cause of the world proletarian revolution and the cause of the people of all countries against imperialism and hegemonism, and pushed the history of mankind forward.

• Chairman Mao Tse-tung is a brilliant example of wholehearted devotion to the interests of the people of China and the world. Chairman Mao dedicated all his energies throughout his life till his last breath to the liberation of the Chinese people, to the emancipation of the oppressed nations and oppressed people the world over and to the cause of communism. A great proletarian revolutionary like Chairman Mao, who weathers all kinds of revolutionary storms, overcomes every difficulty and hardship, and always identifies himself with the workers, peasants and other labouring people and stands in the van of the revolutionary movement to guide it forward, is rare indeed in the annals of the proletarian revolutionary movement. The magnificent contributions Chairman Mao made in revolutionary theory and practice are immortal. Chairman Mao has passed away. This is a loss beyond measure to our Party, our army and the people of all nationalities of our country, to the international proletariat and the revolutionary people of all countries and to the international communist movement.

• We are determined to accomplish the sacred cause of liberating Taiwan and reunifying our motherland. Externally, we must continue to carry out resolutely Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line and policies in foreign affairs, uphold proletarian internationalism, and never seek hegemony. We must strengthen our unity with the international proletariat and the oppressed nations and oppressed people the world over, strengthen our unity with the people of the third world countries, and strengthen our unity with all countries subjected to aggression, subversion, interference, control or bullying by imperialism and social-imperialism so as to form the broadest possible united front against imperialism, in particularly against the hegemonism of the two super powers, the Soviet Union and the United States. We must unite with all genuine Marxist-Leninist parties and organizations in the world and wage a common struggle for the abolition of the system of exploitation of man by man and the realization of communism on earth, for the liberation of all mankind!

Continue the Revolution Under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat to the End (1977) (excerpts)

Marxism-Leninism holds that the completion of the democratic revolution opens the door to the socialist revolution. Applying this principle to the concrete conditions of China, Chairman Mao led our Party successfully making this change-over of the revolution.

[[File:|thumb|Socialism is far superior to capitalism. It enables us to go faster than capitalism in a comparatively short period and surpass capitalism in labour productivity step by step.]] Marxists Internet Archive

• The course of the Chinese revolution has not been plain sailing, for in the course of the advance we have had to vanquish many enemies at home at abroad and both inside and outside the Party, overcome various erroneous tendencies within our ranks and solve many new problems that our predecessors never met with. The victories won by our Party during the democratic revolution and the socialist revolution should be all attributed to Chairman Mao’s leadership. History proves that the banner of Chairman Mao is a great banner under which the proletariat leads the people in the united struggle to victory.

• During Chairman Mao’s lifetime, we united under his banner and fought victorious battles. Since he passed away, loyalty to his banner has become a guarantee for the victory of our revolutionary cause. All our comrades should fully understand this. We must always hold aloft and resolutely defend Chairman Mao’s banner so that our revolutionary cause, under the guidance of Mao Tsetung Thought, will continue to advance triumphantly along Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line.

• At the time of the victory of the democratic revolution China was extremely and backward in economy, with the proletariat accounting for only a tiny portion of the population and the peasants for more than 80 per cent. Was it possible for a big country in such circumstances to switch over immediately to the socialist revolution upon the victory of the democratic revolution? More than a few people, at home and abroad, inside our Party and outside, expressed their doubts or simply thought it impossible.

• Marxism-Leninism holds that the completion of the democratic revolution opens the door to the socialist revolution. Applying this principle to the concrete conditions of China, Chairman Mao led our Party successfully making this change-over of the revolution.

• The people’s democratic dictatorship led by the proletariat thus established was in essence the dictatorship of the proletariat. By expropriating bureaucrat capital in the democratic revolution, the people’s democratic dictatorship led by the proletariat had from the very outset a state-owned economy which was in control of the lifelines of the national economy and was socialist in character.

• The transformation of ownership was the central issue at that time for resolving the contradiction between the working class and the bourgeoisie and between the socialist road and the capitalist road. Chairman Mao in good time formulated for our Party the general line for the transition period. That general line set the task of the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts and capitalist industry and commerce while our country was being industrialized.

• With socialism in the commanding position in the countryside, the state controlled the raw material and market needed by the capitalists and isolated the bourgeoisie politically, thus making them submit to socialist transformation.

• China completed in the main the socialist transformation of the ownership of the means of production in 1956. From then on, a new question confronted the Chinese revolution - whether contradictions, classes and class struggle still exist in socialist society, whether it remains necessary to continue the socialist revolution and how this revolution is to be carried on. This is also a question for which no correct answer has been found in the international communist movement for a long time.

• The dictatorship or the proletariat is dictatorship by the overwhelming majority of the people under the leadership of the proletariat over a very small handful of enemies, but this does not signify that there is only identity and no contradictions within the ranks of the people. Chairman Mao pointed out with ample evidence that there were many contradictions among the people. The contradiction between the socialist road and the capitalist road not only finds expression in the contradictions between ourselves and the enemy but in large measure in contradictions among the people. We use the method of dictatorship to resolve the contradiction between ourselves and the enemy; as for the contradictions among the people, we can only adopt the democratic method to resolve them, namely the method of persuasion, education, criticism and self-criticism. A correct method must be applied in handling among the people so as to ensure the daily strengthening of the unification and the unity within the ranks of the people.

• The working class should transform in its own image the peasantry and the urban petty bourgeoisie, eliminate the bourgeoisie and transform the bourgeois elements and bourgeois intellectuals; while transforming the objective world, the working class should constantly remould its own subjective world.

• Socialism is far superior to capitalism. It enables us to go faster than capitalism in a comparatively short period and surpass capitalism in labour productivity step by step. We must expand production as quickly as possible under socialism, because this is the only way to satisfy the people’s growing needs gradually, and keep broadening the material basis of the socialist system. The consolidation of socialism requires, among other conditions, a strong material basis. In order to safeguard the socialist system it is imperative to have a powerful national defence, which presupposes great economic strength. Without a high degree of industrialization of the country, it is impossible for socialism to win final victory over capitalism.

• We must accelerate the revolutionization and modernization of the People’s Liberation Army, strengthen preparedness against war, maintain vigilance and be ready at all times to wipe out any enemy who dares to intrude. Together with our compatriots in Taiwan, we must make efforts to accomplish the sacred cause of liberating Taiwan and reunifying the motherland. We must expand the revolutionary united front which is led by the working class and based on the worker-peasant alliance and which includes patriotic democratic parties and patriotic personages, so as to mobilize all positive factors to serve the cause of socialism. We must adhere to proletarian internationalism and, in line with Chairman Mao’s scientific analysis of the division into three worlds, do a good job of foreign affairs, unite with all the forces in the world that can be united and oppose the hegemony of the two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States.

• Let us hold high the great banner of Chairman Mao and make further efforts to strengthen the great unity of the whole Party, the whole army and the people of various nationalities throughout the country and, under the leadership of the Party Central Committee, strive to overcome all hardships and difficulties on our way forward and win one new victory after another in the socialist revolution and socialist construction.

Speech at the Fourth Session of the Standing Committe of the Fourth National People's Congress (23 October 1977) (excerpts)

In a word, the revolutionary committees elected must be good so that the people will rejoice and support them and feel encouraged when the lists of the members are announced. This will be conducive to mobilizing the initiative of all sections of the people, and the revolutionary committees will be able to play their role effectively.

Marxists Internet Archive

• An important aspect of grasping the key link of class struggle and bringing about great order across the land is to do a good job in building up the political power and consolidate and strengthen leading bodies of state organs at the central and local levels.
• In a word, the revolutionary committees elected must be good so that the people will rejoice and support them and feel encouraged when the lists of the members are announced. This will be conducive to mobilizing the initiative of all sections of the people, and the revolutionary committees will be able to play their role effectively.
• The convocation of the Fifth National People's Congress and the Fifth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference will be major events in the political life of the people of all nationalities in our country and in grasping the key link of class struggle and running the country well in order to bring about great order across the land. Through the two conferences, we must revive and carry forward the Party's fine traditions and tyle of seeking truth from facts, following the mass line, conducting criticism and self-criticism, practising democratic centralism and hard work and plain living and make these the practice among the people throughout the country, so as gradually to create a political situation in which we have both centralism and democracy, both discipline and freedom, both unity of will and personal ease of mind and liveliness. This will be helpful to our struggle in further deepening the exposure and criticism of the "gang of four" in the political and ideological fields, uniting all the forces that can be united, mobilizing all positive factors and transforming passive factors into positive factors, overcoming the difficulties created by the "gang of four," rapidly developing our country's socialist revolution and socialist construction and further consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat.
• Socialist China will surely flourish and become powerful; the goal of the four modernizations will certainly be attained! Together with the people of all nationalities in our country, let us hold high the great banner of Chairman Mao, continue the revolution and make concerted efforts to achieve this great goal!

Quotes about

• More significant than developments in the Middle East, the death of Mao Zedong in September 1976 was not followed by any abandonment of China’s American alignment. As so often during the Cold War, rivalries within Communist parties played a major role in international developments. The attempt by the radical ‘Gang of Four’, including Mao’s widow, to gain power was thwarted by Hua Guofeng, the Premier, who became Chairman of the Central Committee. He, in turn, became less powerful as his rival, Deng Xiaoping, rose. Deng had been dismissed as Vice-Premier of the State Council earlier in 1976 as a result of the influence of the Gang of Four. Deng was reinstated in July 1977 and, while supporting control by the Communist Party, outmanoeuvred the more ideological Hua by emphasising pragmatism. Deng’s leadership was confirmed in December 1978 at the Third Plenum of the 11th CCP Congress. He remained in power until 1997.
  • Jeremy Black, The Cold War: A Military History (2015)

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