The Chinese flag was flown at half-mast at Tiananmen Square on Monday in honour of late former premier Li Peng, a hardliner in the crackdown on
protesters who occupied the
Beijing landmark in 1989.
Li, who died of an unspecified illness at age 90 last week, was reviled by activists as the "Butcher of Beijing" for his role in the military's brutal suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations on June 4, 1989.
At Tiananmen on Monday, soldiers at the daily flag-raising ceremony raised the red banner to half-mast as hundreds of tourists looked on under rainy skies in the capital.