AFP
Chinese dissident Bao Tong lives under house arrest in Beijing.
An army of agents from the Chinese Ministry of State Security forms a highly visible presence around the 24-story building where Bao Tong lives. They ask for identification, and a uniformed officer records the names of visitors in a notebook. He is polite and asks visitors to take a seat in the lobby. Electronic devices are assembled on his desk, an array of cameras hangs on the wall and a woman in a blue-and-white polo shirt runs the elevator.
A thin man with large glasses and wearing a blue shirt opens the door to apartment six, on the sixth floor. Bao Tong, 76, was a member of the Central Committee. In the 1980s he was in charge of the day-to-day affairs of the Chinese State Council, a position similar to that of the head of the German Chancellery. Bao wrote speeches for party chief Zhao Ziyang, who trusted him. The Communist Party leadership also asked him to think about ways to reform the political system. Bao's basic concept was that the party should withdraw from the business of governing and give up its omnipresent control. If Bao Tong's ideas had been accepted, the totalitarian communist system would have become more liberalized. Unfortunately, they were not.
Click to read more of this SPIEGEL expose...................
Black limousines with tinted windows are parked on the street below. A man videotapes visitors with a camera hidden in a black bag. Bao Tong, the old comrade who once imagined a different China and even believes in it today, still makes them nervous.
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2008
September 3, 2008
CHINA: Bao Tong, 76, once one of most influential leaders, now considered a threat
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The Quiet Afterlife of a Chinese Dissident
By Andreas Lorenz in Beijing
BERLIN, Germany (Der Spiegel), September 3, 2008:
Bao Tong, a former member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, fell out of favor and wound up in prison. Now he lives under house arrest in Beijing, watched by the government because he continues to push for more democratic freedom.
Nowadays, it isn't easy to visit the old man who, less than 20 years ago, was one of China's most influential politicians. His former friends and colleagues now try to prevent him from meeting foreigners. They also try to keep him from talking to Chinese journalists and historians. Not even his friend, philosopher Liu Xiaobo, is permitted to see Bao Tong, who is considered a threat.
AFP
Chinese dissident Bao Tong lives under house arrest in Beijing.
An army of agents from the Chinese Ministry of State Security forms a highly visible presence around the 24-story building where Bao Tong lives. They ask for identification, and a uniformed officer records the names of visitors in a notebook. He is polite and asks visitors to take a seat in the lobby. Electronic devices are assembled on his desk, an array of cameras hangs on the wall and a woman in a blue-and-white polo shirt runs the elevator.
A thin man with large glasses and wearing a blue shirt opens the door to apartment six, on the sixth floor. Bao Tong, 76, was a member of the Central Committee. In the 1980s he was in charge of the day-to-day affairs of the Chinese State Council, a position similar to that of the head of the German Chancellery. Bao wrote speeches for party chief Zhao Ziyang, who trusted him. The Communist Party leadership also asked him to think about ways to reform the political system. Bao's basic concept was that the party should withdraw from the business of governing and give up its omnipresent control. If Bao Tong's ideas had been accepted, the totalitarian communist system would have become more liberalized. Unfortunately, they were not.
Click to read more of this SPIEGEL expose...................
Black limousines with tinted windows are parked on the street below. A man videotapes visitors with a camera hidden in a black bag. Bao Tong, the old comrade who once imagined a different China and even believes in it today, still makes them nervous.
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2008
AFP
Chinese dissident Bao Tong lives under house arrest in Beijing.
An army of agents from the Chinese Ministry of State Security forms a highly visible presence around the 24-story building where Bao Tong lives. They ask for identification, and a uniformed officer records the names of visitors in a notebook. He is polite and asks visitors to take a seat in the lobby. Electronic devices are assembled on his desk, an array of cameras hangs on the wall and a woman in a blue-and-white polo shirt runs the elevator.
A thin man with large glasses and wearing a blue shirt opens the door to apartment six, on the sixth floor. Bao Tong, 76, was a member of the Central Committee. In the 1980s he was in charge of the day-to-day affairs of the Chinese State Council, a position similar to that of the head of the German Chancellery. Bao wrote speeches for party chief Zhao Ziyang, who trusted him. The Communist Party leadership also asked him to think about ways to reform the political system. Bao's basic concept was that the party should withdraw from the business of governing and give up its omnipresent control. If Bao Tong's ideas had been accepted, the totalitarian communist system would have become more liberalized. Unfortunately, they were not.
Click to read more of this SPIEGEL expose...................
Black limousines with tinted windows are parked on the street below. A man videotapes visitors with a camera hidden in a black bag. Bao Tong, the old comrade who once imagined a different China and even believes in it today, still makes them nervous.
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2008
