Speaker: Bao Pu, Founder, New Century Press, Hong Kong

Discussant: Michael Puett, Director, Harvard University Asia Center; Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology, Harvard University 

Mao Zedong’s 26-year reign profoundly shaped the People’s Republic of China. And yet while there have been numerous social, political, and economic analyses of the PRC, the driving forces behind Mao’s policies and the inner workings of power politics at the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party remain poorly understood due to lack of critical information.

Drawing from a collection of largely unpublished private letters, rare publications, and archival records connected to Bao Tong, the late Communist Party reformer and political secretary to Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, Bao’s son Bao Pu weaves his father’s experiences during Mao’s reign into a single coherent narrative. The analysis traces Bao’s personal arc, from the young idealist who joined the Party at age of 16 to disillusioned reformer who became one of the Party’s most outspoken critics. Bao Pu uncovers surprising insights into power dynamics at China’s highest levels, enriched by visuals from Bao Tong’s personal archives and photographs.

Bao Tong was the highest-ranking Chinese official imprisoned over the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square that ended in a bloody crackdown in 1989. Before that, as Political Secretary of the CCP’s Central Committee’s Politburo Standing Committee, he had worked on officially sanctioned plans for political reform. He was released from prison in 1997 and died in 2022 at the age of 90.

Bao began his career in the CCP’s Organization Department in July 1949 and remained deeply engaged with the Party’s central operations throughout his tenure. He worked closely with his mentor, An Ziwen, the Minister of the Organization Department, contributing to the drafting of key documents during the turbulent years leading up to Mao’s Cultural Revolution when both them were purged.

In 1977, Bao made a significant comeback by contributing to the drafting of Deng Xiaoping’s speech at the National Science Conference, a pivotal moment that helped Deng rise to become the supreme leader of China. In the early 1980s, Bao served as the secretary to Premier Zhao Ziyang and eventually ascended to the role of Political Secretary of the CCP’s Central Committee’s Politburo Standing Committee. By the late 1980s, Bao was entrusted by General Secretary Zhao Ziyang with preparation for the Political Reform program, which was approved at the CCP’s 13th Party Congress.

However, the momentum of these reforms came to a halt following the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, leading to Bao’s imprisonment as the highest-ranking official to oppose Deng Xiaoping’s handling of the event. In his later years, Bao continued to be an outspoken critic of the CCP.

Bao Pu is the Publisher and Founder of New Century Press in Hong Kong, best known for its Chinese-language memoirs and contemporary histories of politics, titles including Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang and The Origins of the Cultural Revolution, by Harvard Professor Roderick MacFarquhar. Bao was awarded the Jeri Laber Interntational Freedom to Publish Award in 2010. He is the son of Bao Tong.