FCC club lunch with Bao PU

Speaker: Bao PU
Editor
Topic: Prisoner of the State – The Secret Journal of Premier ZHAO Ziyang

How often can you peek behind the curtains of one of the most secretive governments in the world? Prisoner of the State is the first book to give readers a first person look into the secret inner workings of China’s government.

It is the story of Premier and General Secretary of the Communist Party, ZHAO Ziyang, the man who brought liberal change to that nation and who, at the height of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, was placed under house arrest at his home on a quiet alley in Beijing.

China’s most promising change agent had been disgraced, along with the policies he stood for. The premier spent the last sixteen years of his life, up until his death in 2005, in seclusion. During that time, he managed to put together a memoir in complete secrecy. He methodically recorded his thoughts and recollections on what had happened behind the scenes during many of modern China’s most critical moments. The tapes he produced were smuggled out of the country and form the basis for Prisoner of the State. In this audio journal, ZHAO provides intimate details about the Tiananmen crackdown; he describes the ploys and double crosses China’s top leaders use to gain advantage over one another; and he talks of the necessity for China to adopt democracy in order to achieve long-term stability.

Bao PU, a political commentator and veteran human rights activist, is one of the translators and editors of “Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier ZHAO Ziyang.” He is also an owner of New Century Press, which will be publishing the Chinese version of this book (改革歷程) in Hong Kong. He has a Masters degree in international relations from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School.

Mr. PU will be addressing the club as part of a series of speeches by prominent people as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment in Hong Kong of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club.