Zhao Ziyang was only laid to rest after nearly two weeks of wrangling between his family - determined to defend his place in history - and the authorities, who insisted on treating him as a leader who made 'serious mistakes'.
In the end, the Zhao family was resigned to a wretched funeral, with no hint of any reassessment of the nature of the student-led pro-democracy movement of 1989, which ended in the bloody crackdown on Tiananmen Square and the downfall of Zhao.
His death came at a time when China, to all appearances, had cast off the shadow of the Tiananmen incident which led to diplomatic isolation and international censure. Its rising economic power has attracted huge investment. Foreign countries have, in the interests of doing business, come to accept that the government's response was necessary to ensure China's economic progress.
But what happened in 1989 still mattered, judging from the fearful reaction of the authorities to Zhao's death - muzzling the media, putting dissidents under house arrest, controlling mourners to stop them paying tribute, and demonstrating extreme caution on the day of the funeral.
The authorities were worried that public mourning would turn into protests against the government, not only over the crackdown but also over present-day grievances such as rampant corruption and social injustice.
Twice in the history of the People's Republic, grieving over a leader's death has unleashed strong emotions and sparked mass rallies.
The memorial for Zhou Enlai had to be suppressed in 1976 and mourning for Zhao's predecessor, Hu Yaobang , in 1989 evolved into the Tiananmen Square protest.
