Harvard sinologists expressed surprise yesterday at the appointment of Public Security Minister Hua Kuo-feng as the acting premier of China, but agreed that China's foreign policy probably will not change in the near future as a result.

China announced Hua's appointment on February 7, approximately one month after the death of Premier Chou En-lai, who had generally been regarded as the number-two man in the Chinese hierarchy behind Chairman Mao Tse-tung.

Ross Terrill, associate professor of Government and an expert on East Asian affairs, said yesterday that he and many others had expected Teng Hsiao-ping, senior deputy premier and de facto premier for the past year during Chou's illness, to be named to succeed Chou.

Terrill said appointment of Hua over Teng seems to indicate that Chairman Mao Tse-tung is still very much in power and that China is not going back to the leftist principles of the cultural revolution, because Hua does not represent those principles. "Hau is a front runner for the premiership," he added.

Benjamin I. Schwartz, Williams Professor of History and Political Science, said that although he was surprised at the appointment of a relatively unknown figure, he was "not completely surprised that Teng wasn't appointed," adding that by appointing a "sufficiently neutral" Hua in a 'great deal of resistance to Teng becoming the premier, Chairman Mao seems to have given some support to the left."

Although Hua is not a leftist, he was more acceptable to the leftists than Teng," Schwartz said.

John K. Fairbank, Higginson Professor of History, said yesterday that he expects Hua to be only a temporary premier but that he does not expect Teng to be named premier either