Official funerals are held in accordance with rank, and the official obituary serves as the party's evaluation of the deceased's life. The only exceptions are those who have been regarded as ``traitors'' or expelled from the party.

This is particularly relevant with the death Monday of the long-deposed party general secretary Zhao Ziyang. The party today is in a quandary over the level of reverence that should be paid to a man who was once an integral part of the party leadership.

Although Zhao's funeral is unlikely to spark street demonstrations - as his predecessor Hu Yaobang's death did 15 years ago - the Chinese leadership nonetheless faces a huge challenge in deciding whether and how an official funeral service should be held.

Zhao had served as premier and then party chief until May 1989 when he was forced to step down for refusing go along with the decision by the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and other party ``immortals'' to declare martial law on the capital, bringing in the army to crack down on student-led pro-democracy demonstrations.

At a meeting of the party's Central Committee after the bloody June 4 Tiananmen crackdown, Zhao was formally charged with ``supporting turmoil and splitting the party,'' but he was allowed to retain his party membership.

For such a very important figure, controversial as he might be, Zhao's death cannot be ignored by the party. Mainland sources say authorities began to consult with various social and political circles as soon as Zhao was in his hospital bed on the degree of funeral services and the tenor of the official obituary.

There are signs that the new leaders, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, may be more open-minded over the final evaluation given to Zhao.

This time, Xinhua News Agency acted promptly in reporting Zhao's illness and subsequently his death. In a short statement regarding his death, Xinhua referred to him as ``Comrade Zhao Ziyang.'' This was the first time that Zhao has ever been called a ``comrade'' in an official report since his fall from grace. And according to Zhao's family, unnamed state leaders paid a visit to Zhao on his death bed.

A popular chatroom on the official website of the People's Daily, the party's flagship newspaper, also allowed surfers to mourn Zhao.

Last year, when Zhao's health deteriorated, unconfirmed reports said Beijing was considering mitigating the official verdict on him, deleting the charge of ``splitting the party.'' In fact, party leaders over the past 15 years since Tiananamen have repeatedly asked how the number-one leader of the Communist Party could ever have tried to split his own party.

A new book published in Hong Kong recently appears to support the theory that Zhao's disgrace was not as deep as it appeared to the outside world. The book, Political Struggles in the Age of Reform and Opening Up, is written by Yang Jisheng, a retired senior journalist from Xinhua, who interviewed Zhao three times over the past 15 years. In one interview, Zhao told the journalist that after his ouster as party leader, Deng at least three times asked him to come back to work, but Zhao set two conditions: the June 4 verdict had to be reversed, and he should be returned to a post with real power. Deng could not accept the first condition.

If anything, this suggests that even Deng himself, who drove Zhao into oblivion, did not think Zhao as guilty of unpardonable evil.

Therefore, it would only be to Hu and Wen's credit if they were to have the courage to give Zhao, who in fact contributed a great deal to China's economic reform and opening up, a fairer evaluation - and a decent funeral.zhong.wu@globalchina.com