[Political Interest]

Hua Guofeng was known to be the successor to Mao Zedong who steered a more pragmatic and moderate course from that of his predecessor but did not radically depart from the generally established way of running the country. In the late 1970s he was usurped by Deng Xiaoping who carried out market reforms. Yet did he have some market inclinations? Is our perception of him as a conservative centrist false or was he indeed committed to maintaining the system as it was?