Hua Guofeng, handpicked by a dying Mao Zedong to succeed him as Communist Party chairman but later toppled by reformists, died in Beijing today. He was 87.

The official Xinhua news agency said Hua died of illness but did not elaborate.

Hua, once fondly referred to by state media as the "Wise Leader", became Party chairman in September 1976 after Mao was quoted as saying on his death bed: "With you in charge my heart is at ease".

Weeks later, Hua approved a military plot to arrest Mao's widow, Jiang Qing, and other members of her reviled radical Gang of Four. They were blamed for Mao's excesses during the chaotic decade-long Cultural Revolution.

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