A second commentary on the memoirs of ousted Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang says the party's verdict on the late reformist leader was an 'ironclad case' and 'historically indisputable'.
The commentary by the semi-official Hong Kong China News Agency (HKCNA) attacked Zhao, ruling out any attempt to reverse the party's verdict on him and analysing his 'mistakes'.
Tuesday's commentary attacked western media for trying to pressure Beijing to overturn its verdict on the June 4 Tiananmen Square crackdown. The second commentary was released in the same way - it appeared in three Beijing-friendly newspapers in Hong Kong as well as the city's edition of the China Daily, but not its mainland edition.
Analysts said that given the HKCNA's ambiguous semi-official status, the articles might only reflect the viewpoints of some officials, and not the party leadership as a whole.
Paul Lin, a Taipei-based political commentator who taught Communist Party history on the mainland from 1955 to 1976, said the articles might be a sign of an internal power struggle, suggesting there are some voices within the party calling for a revision of its verdict on Zhao.
'Once there is debate within, some would use the overseas media to launch attacks on what they call hostile foreign forces,' Mr Lin said.
Poon Siu-to, a Hong Kong-based commentator, said that if the articles reflected the party leadership's viewpoint, they would be published by the People's Daily and Xinhua.