ABSTRACT
When Mao Zedong died in 1976, Hua Guofeng took over the leadership. Having come to power by a coup, he sought his legitimacy in presenting himself as the ideological 'heir' to Mao, pledging to continue Mao's line, based on the idea that 'whatever Mao had said and whatever Mao had done was correct'. This necrosanct sycophantism led him into an ambitious interpretation of the 'Four Modernizations' which Zhou Enlai had proposed, declaring very ambitious targets for production, and stating that China could take in the developed world at a fast rate. The hollow rhetoric was followed up by more substantive policy initiatives.
