Hu Yaobang: New Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party

Abstract

AT THE SIXTH PLENUM of the Eleventh Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in June 1981, Hua Guofeng, Mao Zedong's designated successor, was forced to resign his posts as party chairman and chairman of its Military Affairs Commission. Hua was replaced as party chairman by Hu Yaobang, a protege of Deng Xiaoping, China's de facto leader and party general secretary, and as Chairman of the Military Affairs Commission by Deng himself. Meanwhile, Hua was demoted to a junior party vice-chairman, and Zhao Ziyang, another Deng protege and Premier of the State Council, was promoted to party vice-chairman. In ranking order, the changes have created the following lineup in the powerful Politburo Standing Committee of the CCP Central Committee: Hu Yaobang, He Jianying, Deng Xiaoping, Zhao Ziyang, Li Xiannian, Chen Yun, and Hua Guofeng.1 Thus, Hua was dropped from first to seventh in the party hierarchy. Hua's demotion and Hu's promotion were the products of a compromise between the Deng faction and the Maoists. It is still unknown whether Hua retains some sort of residual power; probably his party vice-chairmanship like his former party chairmanship is a nominal position. The results of this plenum are: a tripartite leadership with Hu running the party, Zhao running the government, and Deng running the army; the formal end of the Maoist era; abolition of lifetime tenure for the party chairmanship; and the discontinuance of the concentration of party and military power in the hands of one man. Now Hu, as Deng's heir apparent, plays a leading role in China's decision-making process, although Beijing continues to emphasize collective leadership.