By Jay Scott Kanes
(Second in a Series)

HONG KONG -- Demanding freedoms from a repressive government, like that in China, can mean paying a high price. Yet the most courageous people refuse to fall silent.

One such person is Bao Pu, a 43-year-old dissident, human-rights activist and publisher living in Hong Kong. He’s the co-editor of an important book, Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang, available overseas, but not on the Chinese mainland.

“You really value freedoms when you have things to say, but can’t,” said the Beijing-born Bao Pu. “People don’t realize the importance until their own rights are violated. That’s precisely the problem. Most people going about their daily lives in China don’t think about human-rights issues. At the same time, they know that if they take certain positions, they’ll pay a price.”

Although thankful for slightly greater freedoms in Hong Kong than on the Chinese mainland, Bao Pu still faces restrictions and retributions. “I do have problems about returning to Beijing,” he said. “I haven’t received permission to visit my parents at the Chinese New Year, and I’d say the prospect’s very grim. The official reply said it was ‘very difficult’ for me to visit Beijing before the New Year, and I assume it’ll be difficult after too.”

How does a person cope with such problems? “I’ll continue to apply until the answer is yes,” said Bao Pu. “My Mom is 78 years old and my father is 77. I’m concerned that it may be a long time until I see them again.”

Although Bao Pu’s mother might be allowed to visit him in Hong Kong or elsewhere, his father definitely can’t. “There was a Communist Party pronouncement that when he travels, it constitutes a threat to national security.”

Bao Pu’s father, Bao Tong, long served as a leading aide to Zhao Ziyang, the former Chinese premier who died under house arrest for sympathizing in 1989  with student-protesters. The elder Bao served a seven-year prison sentence for siding with Zhao and the students. Among the student protesters who survived the bloody military crackdown known as the Beijing Massacre stood Bao Pu, then a senior at the Beijing University of Science and Technology.

“After my father’s seven-year sentence, he was deprived of political rights for two more years,” said Bao Pu. “Finally, security officials told him his political rights would be restored. On the very day they mentioned, he was in The Washington Post.

“For a time, it looked like he was one of the few people in Beijing enjoying free speech. His words weren’t printed in China, but they appeared in overseas newspapers. As a result, his situation changed. Starting in 2000, security people followed him all the time, screening his guests and cutting off his phone. That has continued to the present.”

Two years ago, Bao Tong and hundreds of other intellectuals signed Charter 08, a manifesto calling for meaningful political change in China. Recently, Liu Xiaobo, another signatory, went on trial and received an 11-year jail term for subversion. Bao Tong publicly protested against Liu’s trial.

“From my father’s point of view, the issues have changed,” said Bao Pu. “In 1989, he opposed a military crackdown on the student protests. Now, 21 years later, for him specifically, the issue is freedom of expression. He insists on abiding by what he believes.

“For me, the big issue always is human rights. I never forget that suddenly in 1989 my father was gone (arrested). For God’s sake, he was a minister-level government official, yet one day he disappeared. For two years, we didn’t know what had happened to him. That’s how I learned that human rights are a very, very important issue.

“I do worry about my father’s safety, and I hope there won’t be another roundup of people who supported Charter 08,” said Bao Pu. “I hope no more of those people will get into trouble. I mean, they shouldn’t.”

Despite deep worries, “that doesn’t mean that I believe my father and other people should give up what they want to say.”

Big measures of pride mix with the concerns. “Absolutely, I’m proud of my father. I’m proud of his choices from the very beginning back in 1989.

“When I was a student, I didn’t care what my father did and paid little attention. But I’ve revisited the history, and now we have a new-found relationship. We communicate on a level we never had before 1989. In a way, my father and I are comrades. We believe in many of the same things.”

Although issues of human-rights and freedoms turn intensely personal for Bao Pu and his family, government repression never entirely discourages them. “We’re not alone in meeting such a fate,” said Bao Pu. “Our personal experiences represent the overall situation of freedom in China.”

So long as China’s leaders refuse to respect human rights and to uphold basic freedoms, some people are “compelled to speak out”, Bao Pu said.

He and his wife, Renee Chiang (another Prisoner of the State co-editor), have no children, but they still want to witness the emergence of a better, freer China for future generations.