Bao Tong
Encyclopedia
Bao Tong was former Director of the Office of Political Reform of the CPC Central Committee and the Policy Secretary of Zhao Ziyang
, Premier of the State Council, from 1980 to 1985. He was also Director of the Drafting Committee for the CCP 13th Party Congresses
, known for its strong support for Reform and the Open-door Policy. Prior to this, he was a committee member and then Deputy Director of the Chinese State Commission for Economic Reform.
, Zhejiang
Province, but grew up in Shanghai. He currently lives in Beijing, where he lives with his wife, Jiang Zongcao, his daughter Bao Jian, and granddaughter Bao Yangyang. He has a son, Bao Pu, who resides abroad.
Bao was Director of the Office of Political Reform of the CPC Central Committee and the Policy Secretary of Zhao Ziyang
, Premier of the State Council, from 1980 to 1985. He was also Director of the Drafting Committee for the CPC 13th Party Congresses
, prior to which he was a committee member and then Deputy Director of the Chinese State Commission for Economic Reform.
On May 28, 1989, he was arrested in Beijing just before the crushing of the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square
on June 4, 1989
. Zhao Ziyang had resigned as General Secretary of the CPC in protest when Deng Xiaoping
made the decision to crack down on the students. Bao Tong was a close associate 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 May 27, 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.
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 entitled 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 January 19, 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 January 17. The authorities would only allow him access to a doctor if he removed a white flower pinned to his vest. He refused. (Note that the white flower is a traditional symbol of mourning) His wife, pushed to the ground by a policeman, fractured a bone in her spine that had her hospitalized for 3 months.
On January 1, 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 on 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 May 22 to June 7, neatly avoiding the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre
. Visits from his son, Bao Pu, a resident of Hong Kong, are permitted by special arrangements only; under normal circumstances of application, he is unable to obtain a visa.
Zhao Ziyang
Zhao Ziyang was a high-ranking politician in the People's Republic of China . He was the third Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1980 to 1987, and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1987 to 1989....
, Premier of the State Council, from 1980 to 1985. He was also Director of the Drafting Committee for the CCP 13th Party Congresses
National Congress of the Communist Party of China
The National Congress of the Communist Party of China is a party congress that is held about once every five years. The National Congress is theoretically the highest body within the Communist Party of China, but in practice important decisions are made before the meeting. Since 1987 the National...
, known for its strong support for Reform and the Open-door Policy. Prior to this, he was a committee member and then Deputy Director of the Chinese State Commission for Economic Reform.
Biography
Bao was born in HainingHaining
Haining is a county-level city in Zhejiang Province, China, and under the jurisdiction of Jiaxing. It is in the south side of Yangtze River Delta, and in the north of Zhejiang. It is 125 kilometers west of Shanghai, and 61.5 kilometers east of Hangzhou, the capital of the province. To its south...
, Zhejiang
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
Province, but grew up in Shanghai. He currently lives in Beijing, where he lives with his wife, Jiang Zongcao, his daughter Bao Jian, and granddaughter Bao Yangyang. He has a son, Bao Pu, who resides abroad.
Bao was Director of the Office of Political Reform of the CPC Central Committee and the Policy Secretary of Zhao Ziyang
Zhao Ziyang
Zhao Ziyang was a high-ranking politician in the People's Republic of China . He was the third Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1980 to 1987, and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1987 to 1989....
, Premier of the State Council, from 1980 to 1985. He was also Director of the Drafting Committee for the CPC 13th Party Congresses
National Congress of the Communist Party of China
The National Congress of the Communist Party of China is a party congress that is held about once every five years. The National Congress is theoretically the highest body within the Communist Party of China, but in practice important decisions are made before the meeting. Since 1987 the National...
, prior to which he was a committee member and then Deputy Director of the Chinese State Commission for Economic Reform.
On May 28, 1989, he was arrested in Beijing just before the crushing of the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square is a large city square in the center of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen Gate located to its North, separating it from the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is the third largest city square in the world...
on June 4, 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
. Zhao Ziyang had resigned as General Secretary of the CPC in protest when Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy...
made the decision to crack down on the students. Bao Tong was a close associate 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
Qincheng Prison
Qincheng Prison is a maximum-security prison located in the Changping District, Beijing in the People's Republic of China, near Xiaotangshan...
.
On May 27, 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.
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
Adi Ignatius
Adi Ignatius is editor-in-chief of the Harvard Business Review. He joined the magazine in January 2009.Previously, he was deputy managing editor for Time, where he was responsible for many of Time’s special editions, including the Person of the Year and Time 100 franchises...
) an English version of this book entitled Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang
Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang
Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang is a 360-page book in English published in May 2009 containing the memoirs of People's Republic of China's former communist leader who was sacked after the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. It is based on a series of about 30 audio...
. 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
Charter 08
Charter 08 is a manifesto initially signed by over 350 Chinese intellectuals and human rights activists. It was published on 10 December 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopting name and style from the anti-Soviet Charter 77 issued by dissidents in...
manifesto and calls for the release of Liu Xiaobo
Liu Xiaobo
Liu Xiaobo is a Chinese literary critic, writer, professor, and human rights activist who called for political reforms and the end of communist single-party rule in China...
, an organiser of the charter who was arrested in December 2008.
On January 19, 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 January 17. The authorities would only allow him access to a doctor if he removed a white flower pinned to his vest. He refused. (Note that the white flower is a traditional symbol of mourning) His wife, pushed to the ground by a policeman, fractured a bone in her spine that had her hospitalized for 3 months.
On January 1, 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 on 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 May 22 to June 7, neatly avoiding the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
. Visits from his son, Bao Pu, a resident of Hong Kong, are permitted by special arrangements only; under normal circumstances of application, he is unable to obtain a visa.
Quotes
- On the CPC 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 : "[his] 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 scandal2008 Chinese milk scandalThe 2008 Chinese milk scandal was a food safety incident in the People's Republic of China, involving milk and infant formula, and other food materials and components, adulterated with melamine....
: "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."