The Shenzhen leadership has gone up against the national trend by celebrating the most liberal aspects of the Deng Xiaoping legacy.
Cadres in the Special Economic Zone have taken advantage of the fifth anniversary of the patriarch's 'imperial tour of the south' to play up his teachings about radical market reforms.
The media in Shenzhen have devoted blanket coverage over recent days to recalling Mr Deng's pronouncements in Guangdong and other southern provinces.
An editorial in the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily on Monday cited Mr Deng's dictum: 'The important lesson of Shenzhen is to dare to charge into forbidden zones.' A commentary in the paper said it was thanks to the patriarch's instructions that Shenzhen could withstand accusations that the zone had gone 'capitalist' or 'become like Hong Kong'.
Another editorial in the paper saluted Mr Deng's idea that 'thought liberation' had led to the 'liberation of productivity'. It cited his famous remark that the nation's priority task was fighting 'leftism' or remnant Maoism.
Shenzhen party secretary Li Youwei was quoted by the local media as saying Mr Deng had authorised them to 'whack out a path of their own'.
