The political rehabilitation last Friday of former party chief Hu Yaobang is encouraging to the progressive wing of the Communist Party - even though there is little indication that leaders are about to ease their hardline policies. It was Hu's death in April 1989 that triggered the massive student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.
The fact that the late leader was honoured on the 90th anniversary of his birth by the top leadership does not mean that the party is ready to reverse its position on the June 4 massacre. While his death was the catalyst for the demonstrations and subsequent crackdown, the former party chief personally had nothing to do with those events.
In the long run, though, the mainland's leadership will be bound to reassess the decision to use tanks against unarmed students - although it may not happen while President Hu Jintao is the party leader.
Hu Yaobang was undoubtedly the most liberal leader that the party has produced. While party chief, he took the bold step of apologising for the actions of the party in Tibet. He even proposed that Chinese use knives and forks instead of chopsticks, for reasons of hygiene. He called on leader Deng Xiaoping , his mentor, to go into full retirement - a move that did not endear him to the latter's heart. And he was forced to step down as party chief in 1987 for refusing to crack down on student demonstrators.
Hu Yaobang is held in high regard by many of the party faithful, to a large extent, because he personally rehabilitated some 3 million party members. They had been wrongly persecuted during political campaigns such as the Anti-Rightist Movement of the 1950s and the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976.
Coincidentally, the ceremony to honour him took place three days after the death, at the age of 92, of another party elder and reformer, Ren Zhongyi , former party leader of Guangdong. After his retirement in 1985, Ren became an outspoken critic of the party's reluctance to introduce political reforms. In April 2000, he wrote an article in the official Guangzhou party paper, in which he tackled the problem posed by the 'four cardinal principles' enunciated by Deng, and which all party members are meant to observe.
