Editing Hua Guofeng (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Hua Guofeng 1935.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Hua Guofeng in 1935]]
Born in [[Jiaocheng County|Jiaocheng]], [[Shanxi]], the fourth son of a family originally from [[Fan County]], [[Henan]], Hua lost his father at the age of seven.<ref name="bio1"/> He studied at the Jiaocheng County Commercial School and joined the CCP in 1938, during the [[Second Sino–Japanese War]].<ref name="palm">Palmowski, Jan: "Hua Guofeng" in ''A Dictionary of Contemporary World History''. [[Oxford University Press]], 2004.</ref> Like many Communists of the era who took on revolutionary names, he changed his name to Huá Guófēng as an abbreviation of "{{lang|zh-hant|中華抗日救國先鋒隊}}" ({{zh|labels=no|p=Zhōnghuá kàngrì jiùguó xiānfēng duì |l=Chinese Anti-Japanese Aggression National Salvation Vanguard}}). After having served as a soldier in the [[Eighth Route Army|8th Route Army]] for 12 years under the command of Marshal [[Zhu De]],<ref name="palm" /> he was appointed propaganda chief for the Jiaocheng County Party Committee in 1947, during the [[Chinese Civil War]].

Hua moved with the victorious PLA to [[Hunan]] in 1948, where he married Han Zhijun, and would remain in that province until 1971. He was appointed Party Secretary for [[Xiangyin County]] in August 1949, just before the establishment of the People's Republic of China in October of that year. In 1952, he was appointed secretary of [[Xiangtan]] Special District, which included Mao's hometown, [[Shaoshan]]. In this role, he built a memorial hall dedicated to Mao. When Mao visited the site, in June 1959, he was favorably impressed.<ref name="Wang">Wang, James C.F., ''Contemporary Chinese Politics: An Introduction'' (Prentice-Hall, New Jersey: 1980), p. 36.</ref> [[Mao Zedong]] first met Hua in 1955, and was impressed by his simplicity.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Li|first1=Xiaobing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fm5BAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA67|title=Evolution of Power: China's Struggle, Survival, and Success|last2=Tian|first2=Xiansheng|date=2013-11-21|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-8498-1|pages=67|language=en}}</ref>

Because the [[Governor of Hunan]], General [[Cheng Qian]], was not a communist (he belonged to the [[Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang]], a left-wing nationalist faction of the KMT that collaborated with the CCP), Hua gradually came to exercise more and more power within the province, being named Vice Governor in 1958.<ref name="bio1"/>

Hua participated in the 1959 [[Lushan Conference]] (an enlarged plenary session of the [[Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party|CCP Central Committee]]) as a member of the Hunan Provincial Party delegation, and wrote two investigative reports fully defending all of Mao's policies. Hua's influence increased with the [[Cultural Revolution]], as he supported it and led the movement in Hunan. He organized the preparation for the establishment of the local [[Revolutionary Committee (PRC)|Revolutionary Committee]] in 1967, of which he was a deputy chairman. In December 1970, he was elected Chairman of the Revolutionary Committee as well as First Secretary of the CCP Hunan Committee.

He was elected a full member of the [[9th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party|9th Central Committee]] in 1969.<ref name="bio1"/>