THE death this month of a little-known figure highlighted some of the thorniest contradictions facing those who serve the Chinese Communist Party. Zeng Li was a “content examiner” at Southern Weekend, perhaps China’s most progressive newspaper. As censorship became stricter in recent years, it fell to him to review the paper before it was printed (not after, as previously, when it was allowed to censor itself) and to weed out articles banned by the party’s propaganda chiefs.

Mr Zeng died on April 3rd aged 61, just three days after he retired. In a poignant confessional letter to his colleagues before he went, he admitted many mistakes, such as deleting content that should have been published. In the end, however, he says he “woke up” and decided he would rather shirk his political mission than betray his conscience: “I don’t want to be a sinner against history.”

The censor’s change of heart came in time for him to play an important role in the January revolt staged by some Southern Weekend journalists after a spirited new-year editorial praising free expression was watered down at the last minute. Mr Zeng wrote a widely read blog post naming the provincial propaganda official responsible for the censorship.

Mr Zeng’s struggle to fulfil a role he no longer believed in is shared by many others in China’s sprawling state and party bureaucracy. Young party members freely admit that they only joined to advance their careers.

The response to Mr Zeng’s confession has also revealed a surprising capacity to embrace contradictions by those whose work he spent the last years of his career impeding. Many journalists, including some at Southern Weekend, took to social media to praise Mr Zeng and to mourn his death.