The Return of Hua Guofeng

Hua Guofeng

The Epoch Times, the publication of the Falun Gong Group compares the fall of the Gang of Four after Mao's death in 1976 and the current removal from power of former Party boss Jiang Zemin, Bo Xilai, former mayor of Chongqing, Zeng Qinghong,a former vice-president of the PRC and Zhou Yongkang, former member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo and security czar.
Xi Jinping may have met Han Zhijun, the wife of Hua Guofeng who was instrumental in arresting the Gang of Four, but it does not mean that a purge like like in 1976 will occur. 
The fact that the three associates of Jiang Zemin are 'formers' shows that they already are out of the way for Xi Jinping and the new team.
It is however true that they can continue manipulate behind the thick curtains of Zhongnanhai. 
Another article of The Epoch Times mentions another 'purge': hundreds of officials from the powerful Communist Party organ that controls almost all aspects of domestic security would have been secretly arrested in Party leader Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption sweep.

New Epoch Weekly has learned from a highly placed official in Beijing. The ultimate goals of this purge are the arrest of former security czar Zhou Yongkang and the dismemberment of the organization he headed.
According to the source, a former senior official of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC) recently delivered copies of a report to former party heads Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, informing them of mass arrests within the PLAC during the past three months.
The report stated that 453 PLAC officials from all levels have been detained for interrogation, including 392 from the Public Security Bureau, 19 from the Procuratorate, 27 from the court system, and 10 from nonpublic security bureaus.In addition, it said that 12 high-level officials had committed suicide.
...Since taking over as head of the Party, Xi Jinping has repeatedly talked about reform and the need to root out corruption in the Party, in particular speaking of the need to target both 'flies' and 'tigers'. Though a few arrests have been made publicly, they seemed scattered and unable to accomplish anything substantial. However, the large-scale secret arrests of PLAC officials suggest that Xi has chosen the PLAC as his specific target.
The Beijing source said that many observers believe that this is a purge of the PLAC by the new leadership. Many public security police and cadres are unsure of the spirit of the anti-corruption drive, and the arrests have caused a huge shock inside the PLAC and the “stability maintenance” system, the source said.

One will have to await further confirmation to see if we are witnessing a real purge; in any case, it is clear that the power struggle will continue for a few more weeks, at least until the end of the Two Meetings (the National People's Congress or NPC and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference or CPPCC).

Chinese Regime’s Xi Prepares to Deal With New ‘Gang of Four’
The Epoch Times
Cheng Jing
February 14, 2013
Communist leader Xi Jinping invoked memories of the “Gang of Four” at an official Chinese New Year’s eve event, when he honored the wife of Mao Zedong’s short-lived successor with a handshake and bow. Commentators are speculating on the meaning of what was undoubtedly a carefully orchestrated act.
With over 2,000 senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials gathered for a Chinese New Year’s celebration at the Great Hall of the People on Feb. 8, Xi extended a high-profile greeting to Ms. Han Zhijun, the elderly wife of late Chinese leader Hua Guofeng.
Hua succeeded Mao in October 1976. He played a major role in ending the Cultural Revolution, and helped begin what has been called the “reform era.” He was also a key figure in arresting the “Gang of Four,” a group of Party officials, including Mao’s last wife Jiang Qing, who controlled the CCP’s power organs during the latter part of the Cultural Revolution. The four were tried for treason, labeled a major counter-revolutionary force, and blamed for deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
On Feb. 10, Chinese New Year’s day, Yanhuang Chunqiu, a liberal political journal, carried a lengthy article on Hua Guofeng, including how he orchestrated the arrest of the “Gang of Four” after Mao’s death.
Many observers have identified a new “Gang of Four”: ousted princeling Bo Xilai, former Party leader Jiang Zemin, ex-Politburo member Zeng Qinghong, and Zhou Yongkang, former security chief.
Sun Wenguang, a former Professor of Shandong University, told the Sound of Hope (SOH) Radio Network: “There are now struggles going on inside the CCP, such as the arrest of Bo Xilai. Can this sort of thing be extended to others? Can it bring about similar effects as the arrest of the ‘Gang of Four’ did in the past? There are still some higher ups in the CCP who adhere to the conservative ways. Bringing out Hua Guofeng is a reflection of such changes. So I think it could have very symbolic significance.”
Hua Po, a mainland political analyst, says a massive cleansing within the Party is inevitable.
Hua Po told SOH: “Xi looks very composed right now. I think this is the calm before the storm. Within the CCP, the corrupted elements are in fact a vested interest group; they’re the biggest enemy on the path to reform. They are mainly from Jiang Zemin’s faction. But there are great difficulties associated with such a Party cleansing before the storm, so Xi is sitting tight and is trying to first win the majority public opinion—so he shakes hands with Han. First is to win the leftists and some moderates, second is to make friends with many others in preparation for the massive cleansing.”
Epoch Times commentator Zhou Xiaohui interprets the event as an attempt by Xi to win over Party moderates and combat conservative forces. He also predicts that the Party is likely to start cleaning out the remnants of the Jiang faction...