Bao Tong, senior Chinese official turned pro-democracy activist, dies at 90
- He was the top aide to leader Zhao Ziyang and played a key role in pushing political reform in the 1980s
- Brought down in a purge, Bao spent seven years in jail and the rest of his life under de facto house arrest
“From life to death and from compassion to kindness, he never ceased advocating from this sense of morality that we all ought to do our best,” his son Bao Pu said on Thursday from Beijing. “He demonstrated this through his life journey … so his final days were happy.”
Bao Tong died in hospice care in the Chinese capital on Wednesday morning, days after his 90th birthday on November 5.
As director of a top research office on the party’s political reform, Bao also headed a team that drafted documents for the 13th national congress in 1987.
That report, delivered by Zhao at the five-yearly conclave and still available to the Chinese public, famously called for a separation of the party and the state, which would limit the party’s involvement in the everyday operation of the government.
