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Thu 08 Aug 2008Mao's successor, 'Wise Leader' Hua Guofeng, dies in Beijing aged 87
CHINA:CHAIRMAN MAO Zedong's anointed successor, Hua Guofeng, who held power briefly in China before reformists banished him from the pinnacle of the Communist Party, died in Beijing yesterday.
Hua, "Wise Leader" to Mao's "Dear Leader" and the third of Mao's hand-picked successors after Liu Shaoqi and Lin Biao, was the only one to survive being chosen for this famously perilous role.
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