Towards Rural Reform: Hua in Hunan (1949–57)

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the early period of Hua’s career as a provincial official in Hunan prior to the implementation of the Great Leap Forward in 1958. Here, we will see how Hua’s arrival in Hunan in 1949 marked a new and significant chapter in his political career, partly because of the greater exposure he received to local politics and his increased seniority within the party apparatus, but also because it was in Hunan that Hua began to attract the favourable attention of senior CCP leaders, most notably Mao who, luckily for Hua, was from Hunan.