Bao Tong

He helped design China’s political reforms in the 1980s and tried to avert the bloodshed that ended the democracy protests. After prison, he became a critic of the party.

Bao Tong, a former adviser to the liberal Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang, drew some parallels between Hong Kong’s protests and those in Beijing in 1989. He also called on protesters to take a break and regroup.

Zhou Yongkang’s fate fits a pattern found with a succession of ousted officials stretching back to the purge of Gang of Four in 1976 and much earlier.

The author of a new book on the Tiananmen massacre argues that it was crucial to understanding today’s China.

Zhao Ziyang, the embattled Communist Party general secretary, appeared to have misread treacherous political currents and was outmaneuvered by Deng Xiaoping.

The death in 1989 of Hu Yaobang, a former general secretary of the Communist Party who had been accused of being too soft on student protests, became a vehicle for the Chinese public to voice discontent.

Wu Wei, a former Chinese official who in the 1980s was heavily involved in developing plans for measured political reform, says recently announced economic changes will stall without substantial changes to the political system.

Another secret document from violent crushing of pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989 is smuggled out of China, one of several recent signs that deadly crackdown around Tiananmen Square continues to haunt Communist Party and its top leaders; document was written from prison in September 1989 by Bao Tong, top party official who was jailed for sympathizing with student demonstrators; was his official response to charges against him and includes new details of high-level decisions in frenetic weeks before Army shot its way into Tiananmen Square on June 4, killing hundreds and leaving unresolved national trauma; Bao, former adviser and speechwriter for Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang, was held in solitary confinement for seven years on charges of leaking state secrets; currently lives in Beijing under house arrest (M)

Bao Tong, former senior Chinese official who spent seven years in prison for sympathizing with democracy advocates, challenges authorities to abide by the Constitution and stop restricting his freedom to speak out; photo (M)

Bao Tong, highest Chinese Government official jailed for sympathizing with 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations, has been talking publicly about Tiananmen Square killings since his 1998 release and is stepping up efforts as 10th anniversary of crackdown nears; calls killings national tragedy and political error, interview; photo (M)