BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — In the obsessive media heat of these youth-oriented Beijing Olympics, a once-famous Chinese political figure has died at the ripe young age of 87, and goes to the grave almost internationally unnoticed.
He was Hua Guofeng. Upon the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, this old Stalinist grump and Mao sycophant seated himself in the chair reserved for the leader of China. But then along came the infinitely more clever Deng Xiaoping, and Hua soon found himself unceremoniously unseated.
Even so, Hua remains a major icon in modern Chinese politics. Had not most of China and the international news media been riveted on such historic Olympic moments as "beach volleyball," his death might have led the world news and riveted the nation. It might have also renewed the fascinating theme of the wise old man's historic role in China's evolution. How old — really — is old?