V o L u m e I : a d

See also

Albania; Alia, Ramiz; Mao Zedong; Shehu, Mehmet; Sino-Soviet Split; Tito, Josip

Broz; Yugoslavia

References

Halliday, Jon, ed. The Artful Albanian: Memoirs of Enver Hoxha. London: Chatto and

Windus, 1986.

Orizio, Riccardo. Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators. Translated by Avril

Bardoni. New York: Walker, 2002.

Premier and chairman of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Born in

Jiaocheng, Shanxi, in 1921, Hua Guofeng grew up in North Shaanxi, re-

ceiving only a rudimentary education. In late 1935 he joined the Chinese

Communist Party (CCP) and served in the Red Army throughout the Sino-

Japanese War (1937–1945) and the Chinese Civil War (1947–1949).

After the PRC’s birth in October 1949, Hua was assigned to Hunan,

the native province of Mao Zedong, then chairman of both the PRC and the

CCP. As the party’s secretary from 1949 to 1956, Hua was responsible for

land reform and the establishment of rural cooperatives. Among his greatest

achievements was the monumental irrigation project in Shaoshan (Mao’s

birthplace), which later facilitated his ascension to power. In 1958, Hua be-

came Hunan’s vice governor.

The Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) marked a distinct turning point in

Hua’s political career. In May 1971, he was transferred to Beijing to investi-

gate the fall of Lin Biao, Mao’s heir apparent who was also a prime target of

the Cultural Revolution. Hua’s pro-Maoist sympathies earned him member-

ship in the Politburo in August 1973 and the vice premiership in January

1975. In April 1976, he became premier upon Zhou Enlai’s death. In Octo-

ber 1976, shortly after Mao’s death, Hua seized power, ending the Cultural

Revolution and assuming the chairmanships of the CCP’s Central Commit-

tee and Central Military Commission. Together with his premiership, this

made him the most powerful political leader in China. During his tenure,

Hua completed the normalization of Sino-American relations in 1978 and

invigorated the PRC’s relationship with the West. To restore socioeconomic

order after the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, Hua restored the purged

Deng Xiaoping as vice premier. Hua resigned the premiership and the party

chairmanship in 1980 and 1981, respectively. He retained only the Central

Committee membership, which was terminated in 2002. Since then, Hua has

disappeared from public life.

Law Yuk-fun

See also

China, People’s Republic of; Cultural Revolution; Deng Xiaoping; Lin Biao; Mao

Zedong; Zhou Enlai

Hua Guofeng

929

Hua Guofeng

(1921–)

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References

MacFarquhar, Roderick, ed. The Politics of China: The Eras of Mao and Deng. New

York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Meisner, Maurice. Mao’s China and After: A History of the People’s Republic. New York:

Free Press, 1999.

Diplomat, foreign minister during 1976–1982, and vice premier of the People’s

Republic of China (PRC) during 1979–1982. Born in Cixian, Hebei Province,

on 25 January 1913, Huang Hua enrolled at the Yanjing University in 1935

and then in 1936 joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), engaging in

its student movement.

During the Sino-Japanese War, Huang served in Yan’an, Shaanxi Province,

where he was involved in organizational and educational affairs. After the

war, he concentrated on the party’s external affairs. When the CCP’s victory

in the Chinese Civil War appeared certain by May 1949, he became director

of the Nanjing Alien Affairs Office in Jiangsu, taking over the Guomindang’s

former Foreign Ministry and informing foreign envoys of the CCP’s diplo-

matic principles.

After the establishment of the PRC in October 1949, Huang became

director of the Foreign Residence Affairs Department. In January 1953 he

was transferred to the Foreign Ministry, where his first task was to participate

in the peace talks to conclude the Korean War. He attended the Panmunjom

peace negotiations in October 1953 and the Geneva Conference in April

1954. In October 1954 he became director of the West European department

of the Foreign Ministry, in which capacity he attended the 1955 Bandung

Conference and the Sino-American ambassadorial talks in Warsaw in 1958.

From 1960 to 1976 he served as the Chinese ambassador to Ghana, the United

Arab Republic, and Canada successively. Returning to China in late 1976, he

became foreign minister and in September 1979 also vice premier. He held

both posts until 1982, during which time he led numerous Chinese delega-

tions to United Nations (UN) meetings. His most notable achievement

was the establishment of a formal Sino-American diplomatic relationship,

when he represented the PRC in signing the Sino-American Communiqué

of 17 August 1982.

Beginning in 1982, Huang left the public eye, serving the State Council

as councillor, retaining membership in the CCP Central Committee, and

occasionally leading Chinese delegations abroad. He is now head of several

international friendship and welfare organizations.

Law Yuk-fun

See also

Bandung Conference; China, People’s Republic of; Korean War

930

Huang Hua

Huang Hua

(1913–)

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References

Choedon, Yeshi. China and the United Nations. New Delhi: South Asian Publishers, 1990.

Ross, Robert S., ed. China, the United States, and the Soviet Union: Tripolarity and Policy-

making in the Cold War. Armonk, NY: Sharpe, 1993.

Acronym for the Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon (People’s Anti-Japanese

Army) whose members were called Huks. The Communist Party of the

Philippines (PKP) formed the Hukbalahap on 29 March 1942, although it

had its origins in the Filipino peasant movements of the 1930s.

While ostensibly organized to fight the Japanese occupiers, the move-

ment also had a strong socioeconomic program. The Huks gave voice to the

grievances of tenant farmers and landless laborers on the sugar plantations

of central and southern Luzon. They resented the iniquitous crop sharing,

growing indebtedness, and forced labor inherent in the exploitative land-

holding system of the Philippines. During World War II Huk guerrillas suc-

ceeded in killing many Japanese and Filipino collaborators and established

their own governments in many barrios (villages) and towns.

In the immediate postwar period, the situation reverted to the status quo

ante for the Hukbalahap. The landed elite who had collaborated with the

Japanese now turned to the Americans for support. The Americans, because

of their antipathy to communism and sporadic but negative wartime expe-

riences with the Huks, backed the landlords and turned against the Huks.

Many Hukbalahap squadrons were disarmed, and their contribution to the

war effort was denigrated. Local Huk governments were also removed from

power, while Huk leaders, including Luis Taruc, were imprisoned.

The Huks nonetheless participated in the April 1946 elections that were

held prior to Philippine independence on 4 July 1946. The Huks ran under

the banner of the Democratic Alliance Party, which had been formed in July

1945 and combined the peasant movement with the urban Left. However, it

was the Liberal Party that emerged victorious. The Democratic Alliance won

six seats in Congress representing Central Luzon, but President Manuel

Roxas denied the duly elected representatives their seats on charges that

they had employed terror tactics during the elections. Hukbalahap leader

Taruc was among the six prevented from being seated in Congress.

Finding the constitutional-political channel to realize their aims blocked,

the Huks reverted to guerrilla activity. The priority issue was no longer col-

laboration but rather agrarian reform. There were many reasons for the pop-

ularity of the Hukbalahap among peasants, intellectuals, and nationalists.

Discontent had been brewing in the countryside for many decades. The peas-

ants rebelled primarily because of repression by both government officials and

the landed elite. They viewed their actions as entirely defensive in nature.

Taruc demanded immediate enforcement of the bill of rights and revocation

Hukbalahap

931

Hukbalahap

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