More than a thousand mourners paid their final respects to former first lady Wang Guangmei, wife of former president Liu Shaoqi, at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery yesterday morning at a simple funeral.
The funeral was attended by President Hu Jintao and Jia Qinglin, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Wang was jailed for 12 years in 1967 and remained a painful reminder of the Cultural Revolution's excesses.
State media were conspicuously low-key about the funeral. Online postings simply mentioned the attendance of 'state leaders' at the funeral without mentioning Mr Hu or Mr Jia, who attended the service at 9am ahead of the public ceremony.
Although a CCTV crew was seen filming the funeral yesterday, CCTV main news did not carry a report, with most of the news that was broadcast devoted to the 70th anniversary of the Long March first victory celebrations.
Mainland media only reported the October 13th death of Wang, who died at the age of 85, several days later, emphasising her charitable work for impoverished mothers rather than the sensitive subject of her persecution.
Her husband was perceived by Chairman Mao Zedong as his main political rival. Both were imprisoned by Red Guards and Liu died in confinement in 1969.