Ceremony gives leaders perfect chance to show new colours
How to ensure that Zhao Ziyang gets a proper funeral has become one of the most challenging political decisions for President Hu Jintao and other leaders since they came to power more than two years ago.
Leaders have agreed on a simple ceremony for the deposed Communist Party chief during the next few days, but talks with Zhao's relatives over how to judge his role in the Tiananmen pro-democracy protests appear to have stalled.
Analysts will be watching closely for clues as to whether any leaders will attend the ceremony and whether it will be open to the public.
The leaders are facing mounting pressure from Zhao's supporters at home and abroad to show due respect to one of the pioneers of political and economic reforms.
Sources said Mr Hu's friends and former classmates had written to him, urging that he take a more liberal and democratic approach to Zhao's funeral. They said the leadership had also received similar letters from party liberals and academics.
However, sources said the ceremony was likely to be open only to Zhao's family members, relatives, officials who used to work for him and officials representing Sichuan, Inner Mongolia and Guangdong, where he used to work, as well as Henan, where he was born.
The leadership is understood to be preparing a statement to be released after the ceremony.
Many party liberals and academics have urged the leadership to focus the statement on Zhao's achievements while playing down his 'mistakes', particularly his role in the 1989 pro-democracy protests.
If that proves to be the case, it would be welcomed.
Although Zhao has largely been forgotten on the mainland, he still enjoys very high standing among party members and academics.
Many have argued that if the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping is known as the chief architect of China's opening up and reforms, then Zhao should be recognised as the chief engineer.
That is because Zhao was chiefly responsible for putting Deng's ideas into practice when he was premier from 1980 to 1987.
He has been widely credited for engineering market-oriented reforms in agriculture, foreign trade, and industry.
Beijing could also win praise for playing down or even not mentioning Zhao's so-called mistakes. This could reflect the spirit of the current standing policy of not talking about the June 4 crackdown.
Authorities no longer mention the Tiananmen protests as 'a counter-revolutionary riot', and it is now simply referred to as the 'turmoil at the end of the 1980s'.
While it appears unlikely that Mr Hu will take any steps to re-evaluate the official verdict on June 4 in the short term, the leadership should continue to take appropriate steps to heal the political wounds.
Beijing could consider allowing more overseas dissidents who were exiled because of June 4 to come back and visit relatives on humanitarian grounds.
Sources said several leading dissidents based in the United States had already been allowed to visit dying relatives during the past few years, which went unreported.
The leaders could also consider ways to provide financial compensation for bereaved relatives of students and other protesters killed in Tiananmen Square, citing humanitarian grounds.
