Hundreds attend funeral of Mao's secretary-turned-critic

Hundreds of mourners paid their last respects to Mao's former secretary Li Rui on Wednesday at a funeral that went against the final wishes of a man who became a bold critic of the ruling Communist Party.

Despite the dearth of public information on the time and place of the funeral, crowds lined up to see Li's casket, which was draped under the red Communist hammer-and-sickle flag at the Baobashan Cemetery for revolutionary heroes and party officials.

Bundled in dark-coloured winter coats with white flowers pinned on their lapels, many were gray-haired and in their seventies - just one generation younger than Li, who died Saturday at the age of 101.

"He is a good person," one of Li's relatives, who only shared his surname Gu, told AFP.

That is why so many "people have come to send him off on this last journey," Gu said.

"The more old people there are in China like Li Rui, the better," he said, describing Li as a proletarian revolutionary. "He fought for his beliefs all his life - I think this is everyone's right."