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Hua Guofeng's cult of personality
State-sponsored veneration of Hua Guofeng, considered a failed cult / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hua Guofeng's cult of personality was the attempted cult of personality of Hua Guofeng, who became the second Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from 1976 until 1981, after the death of former Chairman Mao Zedong.[1] During his rule he was referred to as the "Wise leader Chairman Hua (英明领袖华主席)."[2]
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He was not the leader of China during his entire Chairmanship, he only had full power between 1976 and 1978. During his leadership he tried to continue some Maoist policies with his "Two Whatevers (两个凡是)" doctrine[3] and tried to establish a personality cult around himself.[4]
At the peak of his cult, the number of portraits of Hua even surpassed those of Mao,[5] but with the rise of Deng Xiaoping he became more and more unpopular, inside and outside the party. At the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee Deng took control of China and Hua's cult was thus stopped.[6]
Over the next four years Hua lost most of his power, by 1982 he was reduced to an ordinary member of the Central Committee. He left the committee in November 2002 and died in August 2008.[7]