Hua Guofeng, a former leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC), died on August 20 at the age of 87, Xinhua reported without elaborating. In a short official statement, Hua was praised as "an outstanding CPC member, a long-tested and loyal Communist fighter and a proletarian revolutionary who once held important leading posts in the CPC and the government." Hua Guofeng succeeded Mao Zedong in 1976 as China’s Communist Party chairman and the nation’s head of state.
Source: Xinhua, August 20, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-08/20/content_9545861.htm