A Chinese official once castigated for his harsh handling of student dissent in Tiananmen Square paid homage on Sunday to a 13-year-old boy slain in the 1976 Soweto revolt against apartheid.
The idea that Li Peng, who oversaw the brutal suppression of pro-democracy protests in Beijing 10 years ago, would honour a victim of police oppression here drew renewed condemnation of the Chinese Communist Party hardliner.
Li and his wife, Zhu Min, stood briefly in front of the Hector Peterson Memorial, reading a banner of remembrance placed on behalf of the Chinese government. He bowed his head for a few moments.
Many state leaders who come to South Africa visit the memorial, built to honour the black youth who became a symbol of the struggle against racial and political oppression in South Africa - much as the image of a lone man blocking a column of tanks in Beijing remains emblematic of the Chinese student-led protests.
A photograph of another student carrying Peterson's body with the victim's crying sister running alongside galvanised the anti-apartheid movement around the world.
But Li's pilgrimage was tinged with irony and human rights overtones.
As Chinese premier in 1989, he imposed martial law to quell protests in Tiananmen Square and backed the military's bloody crackdown on students urging political reforms. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, died in the assault.
Li, 71, now head of China's national legislature and the number 2 official in the monolithic Communist Party, opposes efforts to amend the government's view of the unrest still officially labelled "counter-revolutionary riots".
Once widely reviled at home and shunned by foreign governments, Li has worked over the past decade to cast off his image as international pariah. His warm welcome by South African officials illustrates the importance more countries are placing on relations with China, a powerful ally as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and an attractive trading partner with a population of 1,2-billion people.
Officials in post-apartheid South Africa refused to comment on Li's role in the Tianamen clampdown.
"I don't have anything to say about that," presidential spokesperson Parks Mankahlana said curtly.
Stellenbosch University political analyst Sampie Terreblanche accused South African officials of conducting a hypocritical foreign policy and said Li's visit to the memorial "makes a mockery of the idea of human rights".
"Because of South Africa's history, this government is exceptionally well-placed to always take the moral high ground. But we are not doing it because it is not in our economic interests," Terreblanche said.
Li was scheduled to meet later on Sunday with former President Nelson Mandela, the leader of the African National Congress who retired in June from the first post-apartheid government, and President Thabo Mbeki, who succeeded Mandela after another ANC landslide victory.
Both Mandela and Mbeki have remained loyal to China, a longtime supporter of anti-apartheid forces. Last year, South Africa dropped formal recognition of Taiwan to forge official links with Beijing.
Mandela disappointed Chinese dissidents after refusing to speak out on behalf of political prisoners during a visit to Beijing in 1992, when apartheid was crumbling in the wake of his release from 27 years in jail.
On June 16, 1976, Hector Peterson and was one of nine students killed in Soweto by white police - shot in the back during protests that engulfed the township after students rebelled against using the Afrikaans language in black schools. The massacre triggered protests across the country in which hundreds died.
Antoinette Sithole, 40, Peterson's sister, said she hopes Chinese leaders can learn about human rights from South Africa.
"But I don't understand (Li) if he still supports what was done to the Chinese students," she said. - Sapa-AP