Hua Guofeng

At that time, many compared Jiang to Chairman Hua Guofeng, Mao's chosen successor, who was ousted by Deng in the late 1970s after a few short years at the helm.

The first two Chinese leaders to succeed Mao, Hua Guofeng and Hu Yaobang, had the chairman title.

Under the Communist leader’s successor, Hua Guofeng, Mr. Yuan rose to prominence in China for the first time.

In 1976, it was announced in China that Hua Guofeng had been named to succeed the late Mao Zedong as chairman of the Communist Party; it was also announced that Mao’s widow and three others, known as the “Gang of Four,” had been arrested.

Xi is the party’s general secretary, but not its chairman, a title Mao Zedong and his two successors, Hua Guofeng and Hu Yaobang, both held.