ON APRIL 15th the arcane and neglected art of reading China's political tea leaves suddenly surged back into fashion. The Communist Party's turgid broadsheet, the People's Daily, published an article on the top of its second page by the prime minister, Wen Jiabao. Its glowing praise for Hu Yaobang, a politically incorrect former party chief whose death triggered the Tiananmen Square protests 21 years ago, struck a remarkably liberal note.

Hu's death on April 15th 1989 prompted thousands of students to take to the streets in mourning. They bore aloft pictures of the late leader, who though still a member of the ruling Politburo when he died had been forced to resign as the party's general secretary two years earlier for being too soft on dissent. Because Hu had not been fully purged, the party had no choice but to hold an elaborate funeral for him. This provided cover for the students, who soon switched their attention to demands for democratic reform.

Since the bloody suppression of the protests, Hu has been referred to sparingly by Chinese officials; and the liberalism with which he was associated has also been permitted only sparingly. Of late, it has been notably absent, as the party cracks down on human-rights activists, tightens controls on the internet and frets about unrest in Tibet and Xinjiang. Yet China's leaders are preparing for a change of guard in 2012-13. Mr Wen will be stepping down. Could it be that, having established China as a global economic power, he and his colleagues are at last thinking of trying to make it politically more respectable?

Hu's reputation has sometimes been used in arguments about the direction of the country. In an exception to the general rule that he has been neglected by his successors, a symposium was held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in November 2005 to mark the 90th anniversary of his birth. It was widely interpreted as an attempt by President Hu Jintao to boost his own public standing by allowing open tributes to his still-popular namesake. A speech by China's then vice-president, Zeng Qinghong, lavished praise on Hu Yaobang's career as one of the Communist state's revolutionary founders, tactfully avoiding mention of his dethronement.

But by and large the leadership has ignored Hu Yaobang's death. Last year's 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen movement made officials especially nervous of anything that might revive memories of that period. Even though the milestone passed with little more than token attempts inside China to observe it, the authorities have yet to ease their grip. Last December a prominent dissident, Liu Xiaobo, was jailed for 11 years for “inciting subversion”.

This made the appearance of Mr Wen's more than 3,000-character essay especially striking. Unlike Mr Zeng's formal-sounding 2005 speech, Mr Wen's article marked the first time since 1989 that a top leader has been willing to write of a personal connection with the former party chief. It recalls a trip he made with Hu in 1986 to a rural area of the poor southern province of Guizhou. “Every time I think back on this, Comrade Yaobang's sincere, magnanimous and amiable expression keeps appearing before my eyes. Cherished feelings stored in my heart for all these years swell up like a tide, and it takes a long time for me to calm down,” Mr Wen wrote.

A few other official newspapers also published reminiscences, this time apparently less restrained than in 2005, when the party's propaganda bureau responded furiously to a liberal magazine's articles related to the anniversary. Thousands of Chinese internet users have praised these latest pieces in online forums.

But hope that Hu's partial rehabilitation might lead to any reassessment of the Tiananmen Square protests will certainly be dashed. Hu's political views have been notable for their absence in the recent articles, suggesting that only his affable character is open for discussion. This is a safe topic for Mr Wen, who prides himself on the same man-of-the-people quality that his article praised in Hu. From anecdotal evidence, it appears Mr Wen enjoys some popularity for his caring image—it has been on display again with his visit to the epicentre of an earthquake on April 14th in Qinghai Province on the Tibetan plateau that killed more than 2,000 people.

Tea-leaf readers are divided over what, if any, further political message might have been intended. Few believe Mr Wen would have published such an article without consulting his colleagues. But there is a school of thought that Mr Wen, feeling that his own political career is drawing to an end (he is due to step down in 2013, if not before, as will President Hu), is trying to signal a yearning for political reforms which have not been pursued more vigorously. President Hu has kept silent on Hu Yaobang, but both he and Mr Wen owe earlier promotions to the late leader. In his article, Mr Wen revealed that he had visited Hu Yaobang's home every year since his death, a gesture that readers would interpret as showing considerable loyalty.

Bao Tong, who was a top aide to the late Zhao Ziyang, Mr Hu's equally liberal successor, believes there could be an ultra-subtle message in the party's re-embrace of Hu. Officials—he points out—like to encourage the idea that Zhao helped topple Hu (though Mr Bao says he did not). Far from being a sign of yearning for reform, support for Hu could indicate repudiation of Zhao, about whom reminiscences remain strongly discouraged. Zhao was thoroughly purged after Tiananmen and died under house arrest five years ago.

Mr Wen's article, however, does hint strongly at a huge problem in China's political system. It describes how Hu instructed Mr Wen to sneak out of an official guesthouse and visit a village under cover of darkness, to find out what peasants were really thinking. “Remember, do not inform the local government”, Hu was quoted as saying. A quarter of a century later, Chinese leaders remain almost as prone to deception by their underlings.