Bao Tong
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Bao Tong (鮑彤; b. 1932) was former Director of the Office of Political Reform of the CPC Central Committee and the Policy Secretary of Zhao Ziyang (趙紫陽), 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.
He was born in Haining, Zhejiang Province, but 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.
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 CCP 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 continues to write articles openly critical of the government and its policies. He appealed for the restoration of civil and political rights of Zhao Ziyang from 1998 until Zhao's death; he supports further democratic development in Hong Kong and continues to voice the need for political reform in China[1].
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[edit] Continued harassment, surveillance and restrictions of movement
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[2]. (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. [3]
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 only two occasions since his arrest in 1989.
[edit] Quotes
- On the 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.[4]"
- 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.[5]”
[edit] References
- ^ Writers' columns - Bao Tong. Chinaaffairs.org.
- ^ China in Focus #1. asiaamerica.org (Jan 20, 2005).
- ^ In A Tiananmen Rebels Glass Prison. sky.com (Jan 17, 2008).
- ^ Former Community Party official: Last decade 'wasted'. Rebecca McKinnon. CNN (June 2, 1999).
- ^ China in Focus #1. asiaamerica.org (Jan 20, 2005).
