Chinese writer and activist

In this Chinese name, the family name is Bao.

Bao Tong (Chinese: 鲍彤; born 6 November 1932) is a Chinese writer and activist. He was former Director of the Office of Political Reform of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Policy Secretary of Zhao Ziyang (Chinese Premier from 1980 to 1987 and CCP General Secretary from 1987 to 1989). He was also Director of the Drafting Committee for the CCP 13th Party Congresses, known for its strong support for market reform and opening up under Deng Xiaoping. Prior to this, he was a committee member and then deputy director of the Chinese State Commission for Economic Reform.

Contents

• 1 Biography
  • 1.1 Early and present life
  • 1.2 Career
  • 1.3 End of Government Career
  • 1.4 Later life
• 2 Quotes
• 3 References
• 4 External links

Biography

Early and present life

Bao was born in Haining, Zhejiang Province, but he grew up and received his primary and secondary education in Shanghai. Through the influence of his uncle, Wu Shichang (a well-known political commentator in the 1930s-1940s and major contributor to The Observer, a key journal of Chinese liberal intellectuals), Bao turned to political liberalism and left-wing ideology promoted by the CCP, when he was still a high school student. He studied in the Shanghai Nanyang High School where met his wife, Jiang Zongcao. She was an active member of the communist underground who was kicked out of many schools for organising demonstrations. Jiang convinced Bao to join the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, the year it came to power following the civil war. He currently lives in West Beijing with his wife Jiang Zongcao, his daughter Bao Jian, and granddaughter Bao Yangyang. His son, Bao Pu, is banned from entering China. Bao Pu is a U.S citizen and he has published Zhao Ziyang's memoirs in Hong Kong.

Career

Bao was Director of the Office of Political Reform of the CCP Central Committee and the Policy Secretary of Zhao Ziyang, Chinese Premier from 1980 to 1987 and CCP General Secretary from 1987 to 1989. He was Director of the Drafting Committee for the CCP 13th Party Congresses, prior to which he was a committee member and then deputy director of the Chinese State Commission for Economic Reform. Bao was the political secretary of the Politburo Standing Committee between November 1987 and May 1989.: 41 

End of Government Career

On 28 May 1989, he was arrested in Beijing just before the suppression of the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. Zhao Ziyang had resigned as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in protest when Deng Xiaoping made the decision to crack down on the students. Bao Tong was a close *ociate of Zhao and the writer of his speeches and editorials supporting a democratic and legal approach to the student movement. Zhao was held under house arrest for the rest of his life, while Bao Tong was officially charged with "revealing state secrets and counter-revolutionary propagandizing", the highest government official to be charged in relation to the 1989 movement. He was publicly convicted in 1992 in a brief show trial and sentenced to 7 seven years' imprisonment with 2 years deprivation of political rights. He served his full sentence in isolation at Qincheng Prison.

On 27 May 1996, when he was due to be released upon completing his prison sentence, he was instead held at a government compound in Xishan (outside Beijing) for an additional year, until his family agreed to move out of their apartment in town to one allocated for them by the authorities, where a 24-hour guarded gate and surveillance cameras were installed. Visitors were screened, the phone was tapped or cut off entirely, and Bao Tong was followed by an entourage of men the moment he stepped out of his home. Though he has moved to another apartment in Beijing, the system of surveillance and curtailing his phone calls, visitors and movements has followed him to his new home.

Later life

Bao Tong appealed for the restoration of civil and political rights of Zhao Ziyang from 1998 until Zhao's death. He was instrumental to the publication in May 2009 of Zhao Ziyang's memoir, based on audiotapes that Zhao made secretly while under house arrest and discovered after his death in 2005. Bao Tong's son Bao Pu, and daughter-in-law Renee Chiang, published the book Journey of Reform (改革歷程) in Hong Kong and translated and edited (along with Adi Ignatius) an English version of this book en*led Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang. Bao Tong wrote an introduction for the Chinese version.

Bao Tong continues to write articles openly critical of the government and its policies. He supports further democratic development in Hong Kong and continues to voice the need for political reform in China. He was a signer of the Charter 08 manifesto and calls for the release of Liu Xiaobo, an organiser of the charter who was arrested in December 2008.

On 19 January 2005, the Washington Post reported that Bao Tong and his wife were injured in attacks by more than 20 plainclothes security agents as they attempted to leave their home to pay their respect to the family of Zhao Ziyang, who died on 17 January. The authorities would only allow him access to a doctor if he removed a white flower (traditional symbol of mourning) pinned to his vest. He refused. His wife, pushed to the ground by a policeman, received a fracture bone in her spine that resulted in her being hospitalized for 3 months.

On 1 January 2007, Reuters tested a new government relaxing of regulations on foreign reporters by visiting Bao Tong at his home, purportedly to conduct an interview about the Beijing Olympics. Since then, several foreign reporters have done the same. The guards sometimes attempt to intimidate or deny visitation, but are apparently allowing most foreign reporters to enter, if prior arrangements are made. Local Chinese reporters are not included in this new relaxation of regulations.Sky News reporter Peter Sharp describes his visit to Bao Tong in his blog.

Their home telephone continues to be tapped and periodically cut off, especially when overseas callers ask to speak to Bao Tong. He is followed everywhere he goes, and is occasionally blocked from “sensitive” events or places, for example, the home of Zhao Ziyang while he was alive, and his funeral after his death in 2005. Bao has been allowed to leave Beijing on three occasions since his arrest in 1989, the last time in 2009 for a holiday by invitation and escort of the Public Security from 22 May to 7 June, neatly avoiding the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen M*acre. Visits from his son, Bao Pu, a resident of Hong Kong, are permitted by special arrangements only; under normal cir*stances of application, he is unable to obtain a visa.

Quotes

• On CCP leadership: "We must correct all of Deng Xiaoping's mistakes. This is the only way to truly uphold Deng Xiaoping's vision. This is what it truly means to carry on Deng Xiaoping's work. Only when they acknowledge his mistakes and correct his mistakes can they stand taller than Deng Xiaoping. Otherwise they have no right to call themselves Deng Xiaoping's successors. They can only call themselves the successors of Deng Xiaoping's mistakes."
• On mourning Zhao Ziyang: " life formed part of a heroic and mighty task, that of pioneering the protection of human rights and democracy for the Chinese people:... To mourn Zhao is to defend human rights. To mourn Zhao is to pursue democracy and the rule of law."
• On the 2008 Chinese milk scandal: "The tainted milk scandal shows us that the more dark secrets are exposed, the better. You can't cure the disease, or save the Chinese people, until you get to the root of the problem." "If the Chinese government tries to play down this incident, there will be no social stability in China, let alone harmony:... It will mean that this government has lost the most basic level of trust."

References

External links

• Bao Tong Articles on RFA.org
• Financial Times profiles Bao Tong
• Wall Street Journal interviews Bao Tong
• Alliance Introduction
• Project Syndicate
• Laogai.org

ProtestersMilitaryWorks

• Almost a Revolution
• A Tiananmen Journal
• Collection of June Fourth Poems
• The Critical Moment – Li Peng Diaries
• Escape from China
• Execution
• The Gate of Heavenly Peace
• A Heart for Freedom
• Leica advert
• Moving the Mountain
• Prisoner of the State
• Quelling the People
• Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square
• Tiananmen Exiles
• The Tiananmen Papers
• Pillar of Shame
• Chimerica
  • TV series

Human rights
groups

• China Support Network
• Democracy Party of China
• Hong Kong Alliance
• Human Rights in China
• Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy
• Operation Yellowbird
• Tiananmen Mothers

Anniversaries

• 10th (1999)
• 20th (2009)
• 21st (2010)
• 24th (2013)
• 25th (2014)
• 30th (2019)
• 31st (2020)
• 32nd (2021)

Icons

• "Nothing to My Name"
• Tank Man
• June 4th Museum
• Goddess of Democracy
  • Hong Kong

Related

• Reactions to the protests and m*acre
• Arrest and trial of Chen Ziming and Wang Juntao
• Human rights in China