Disgraced ex-Beijing mayor's funeral denied national anthem and flag

Chen Xitong's falling out with former president Jiang Zemin - which led to Chen's imprisonment 16 years ago - has followed the disgraced Beijing mayor to his grave, sources say.

The family's wish to hold his funeral at Beijing's Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery was denied, a person who attended his funeral on Tuesday has told the South China Morning Post on condition of anonymity.

Babaoshan is the resting place for many past party leaders.  The funeral of disgraced former party general secretary Zhao Ziyang, who died in 2005, was also held at the cemetery.

Chen had died of cancer on June 2 at the age of 83. His passing was officially reported only June 5, one day after the 24th anniversary of the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989, for which he has been partly held responsible by victims' families.

The Beijing mayor was purged in 1995, and three years later sentenced to 16 years jail on corruption charges. Along with former Shanghai party secretary Chen Liangyu and former Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai, he was one of the highest-ranking officials to have faced such charges. 

Instead of Babaoshan, Chen's funeral was held in Changping, a suburb northwest of the capital, where he began his career in the 1970s. The family's wishes for the national anthem to be played and the coffin wrapped in the Communist Party's red hammer and sickle flag were also refused, the source said.