Modern attitudes are more showbiz-friendly and Ms Peng, who is about to turn 50, is anyway much too well known and far better respected to have her past erased.
Peng Dingding, a Beijing-based economist, is worried that, at a time when China needs to invest more and raise productivity, policymakers are instead obsessed with stimulating domestic demand in the mistaken belief that the country can eat, drink and consume itself to prosperity.
So famous were her charms that when she met Franklin Roosevelt in the Oval Office, he reportedly asked that a card table be place between them just in case.As China looks for new ways to boost its soft power abroad, Peng Liyuan could well follow in Ms Soong's footsteps.
As late as 2007, Beijing wags would still refer to Xi Jinping as "Peng Liyuan's husband".
(In interviews, Ms Peng has described her husband as a simple man who enjoys carousing only occasionally, with close friends).In this, Ms Peng would have less in common with the infamous Madame Mao than she does with the wife of Mao's arch-enemy, Chiang Kai-shek.
A Beijing-based economist, Peng Dingding, reckons that the economy would be better stimulated if the extra money went to China's poorest, rather than to its relatively well-off bureaucrats.
The icequakes discovered by Dr Peng and his colleagues were too tiny to cause serious damage, but a tremor that happened in Antarctica itself might be a different matter.
Mao still managed to line up a majority to overrule Peng and purge him.
But it looks as though Hong Kongers will be able to let off steam by shouting "Down with Li Peng" without harm, if Andrew Li's new court will allow it.Next on the agenda comes the question of sorting out the ground-rules for the first elections, post-handover, for Hong Kong's legislature.
The militia's octogenarian leader, Peng Jiasheng (known as Phone Kyar Shin in Burmese), denies these allegations but has tried to whip up Chinese support online, reminding the Chinese of their "common race and roots".
(Ms Peng, the first lady, was a "general" in her singing days).
