Bao Tong
Bao Tong | ||
---|---|---|
People's Republic of China | ||
Political party | Chinese Communist Party (1949–1992, expelled) | |
Spouse |
Jiang Zongcao (died 2022)Hanyu Pinyin Bào Tóng | |
Bao Tong (
Biography
Early life
Bao was born in
Government career
Bao Tong was recruited to work for the newly established Communist government on the day he was taking entrance exams for university, during his lunch break. He was soon to be moved to Beijing where he was to work for the Organization Department under An Ziwen, who was to become an important mentor to him, until the beginning of the Cultural Revolution when they were both purged. Bao was to spend the rest of the Cultural Revolution doing hard labour in the countryside and in a factory.
Bao was reinstated after the Cultural Revolution and was recommended to
Prior to this, he was a committee member and then deputy director of the Chinese State Commission for Economic Reform. Bao was the political secretary of the
End of government career
This section needs additional citations for verification. (November 2022) |
Bao, along with Zhao Ziyang, helped Hungarian-American investor George Soros establish the Beijing-based Fund for the Reform and Opening of China (China Fund) in 1986.[5][7] After Zhao and Bao were arrested in 1989, representatives from the organization were arrested and interrogated by Chinese authorities. Zhao's supporters expressed concern that the Chinese government wanted to link Bao and Zhao to "foreign subversive forces", including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).[7] Soros denied any CIA involvement and wrote a letter to paramount leader Deng Xiaoping in defense of the fund.[7]
On 28 May 1989, he was arrested in Beijing just before the suppression of the democracy movement in
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 had moved to another apartment in Beijing, the system of surveillance and curtailing his phone calls, visitors and movements had followed him to his new home.
Later life
After his release in 1997, Bao Tong lived in West Beijing with his wife Jiang Zongcao, his daughter Bao Jian, and granddaughter Bao Yangyang. His son, Bao Pu, who had become a U.S. citizen, was restricted from entering China.[4]
Bao Tong appealed for the restoration of civil and political rights of Zhao Ziyang from 1998 until Zhao's death. He was instrumental in 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 Tong continued to write articles openly critical of the government and its policies. He supported further democratic development in Hong Kong and continued to voice the need for political reform in China.[8] He was a signer of the Charter 08 manifesto and called 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.[9] His wife, pushed to the ground by a policeman, received a bone fracture in her spine that resulted in her being hospitalized for three 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
Sky News reporter Peter Sharp describes his visit to Bao Tong in his blog.[10]
Their home telephone continued to be tapped and periodically cut off, especially when overseas callers asked to speak to Bao Tong. He was followed everywhere he went, and was 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 was 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
Bao died in Beijing on 9 November 2022, at the age of 90; the death was announced on Twitter by Bao Pu.[11][12] Journalist Gao Yu, a close friend of Bao, stated that he had died of myelodysplastic syndrome, and that the funeral would take place on 15 November 2022.[12]
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."[13]
- 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."[9]
- 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."[14]
References
- ^ @baotong1932 (21 August 2022). "荊妻蒋宗曹於2022年8月21日7時16分因癌去世,得年九十。專此訃聞。" (Tweet) (in Traditional Chinese) – via Twitter.
- ^ Wang, Fan (10 November 2022). "Bao Tong: Champion of Chinese political reform dies at 90". BBC.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-61472-900-6.
- ^ a b c d "Tea with the FT: Bao Tong". Financial Times. 29 May 2009. Archived from the original on 11 December 2022.
- ^ OCLC 1228187814.
- ISBN 9781134038824.
- ^ ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
- ^ "Writers' columns – Bao Tong". Chinaaffairs.org. Archived from the original on 26 June 2017. Retrieved 1 August 2006.
- ^ a b "China in Focus #1". asiaamerica.org. 20 January 2005. Archived from the original on 23 May 2006.
- ^ "In A Tiananmen Rebel's Glass Prison". sky.com. 17 January 2008.
- ^ "Bao Tong, secretary to Zhao Ziyang, dies at 90". RTHK. 9 November 2022. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
- ^ a b Yu, Verna (9 November 2022). "Bao Tong, former top aide of Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang, dies at 90". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
- ^ "Former Community Party official: Last decade 'wasted'". Rebecca McKinnon. CNN. 2 June 1999.
- ^ "Uproar Over China Milk Scandal". Radio Free Asia. 23 September 2008.