A newspaper article eulogising a reformed-minded official has sparked speculation that it is subtly - yet boldly - pushing the upcoming leadership to launch democratic reforms.
The article this week in the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis News marked the sixth anniversary of the death of former Guangdong party chief Ren Zhongyi and paid curt but bold tribute to ousted leader Zhao Ziyang and late party chief Hu Yaobang for their contributions to the province's prosperity.
'Mr Ren attributed Guangdong's success to [late paramount leader] Deng Xiaoping , but said it would not have been possible without the contribution of Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang,' Ren's former secretary, Pan Dongsheng, wrote in the commentary.
Next to the article was a 1980 photograph of Ren shaking hands with party reformist Xi Zhongxun, his predecessor as Guangdong party chief and the father of Vice-President Xi Jinping - who is widely tipped to take over from President Hu Jintao next year.
Ren was in charge of Guangdong between 1980 and 1985 and was widely credited with leading its transformation into one of the country's wealthiest regions despite conservative political pressure.
His boss Zhao was purged for sympathising with students in the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy movement and kept under house arrest for nearly 16 years until his death in 2005. The party tried to obliterate any public mention of him after his downfall and few state publications have dared raise his name since.
Hu Yaobang, an ostracised reformist leader whose death in 1989 triggered the Tiananmen protests, is considered a less sensitive figure.