Hua was born in Jintan District, Changzhou, Jiangsu, and his ancestral home is Danyang, Jiangsu. He is one of the founders of analytical mathematics in China and is known as "Leibniz of China". He has been a member of the China Academy of Sciences, a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, a member of the Third World Academy of Sciences, and a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences of the Federal Republic of Germany. In addition, he was a member of the first to sixth the NPC Standing Committee of China.