He was also Director of the Drafting Committee for the CCP 13th Party Congresses, known for its strong support of market reform and opening up under Deng Xiaoping.

During the 1989 Tian’anmen square protests, he was one of the very few Chinese senior officials to express understandings with the demonstrating students,[2] which led to his arrest shortly before the June Fourth incident.

[4] Bao Tong was recruited to work for the newly established Communist government on the day he was taking entrance exams for university, during his lunch break.

Zhao Ziyang had resigned as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in protest when Deng Xiaoping made the decision to crack down on the students.

Bao Tong was a close associate of Zhao and the writer of his speeches and editorials supporting a democratic and legal approach to the student movement.

On 27 May 1996, when he was due to be released upon completing his prison sentence, he was instead held at a government compound in Xishan (outside Beijing) for an additional year, until his family agreed to move out of their apartment in town to one allocated for them by the authorities, where a 24-hour guarded gate and surveillance cameras were installed.

On 1 January 2007, Reuters tested a new government relaxing of regulations on foreign reporters by visiting Bao Tong at his home, purportedly to conduct an interview about the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

The guards sometimes attempt to intimidate or deny visitation, but were apparently allowing most foreign reporters to enter, if prior arrangements were made.

Bao was allowed to leave Beijing on three occasions since his arrest in 1989, the last time in 2009 for a holiday by invitation and escort of the Public Security from 22 May to 7 June, neatly avoiding the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre.

Visits from his son, Bao Pu, a resident of Hong Kong, were permitted by special arrangements only; under normal circumstances of application, he was unable to obtain a visa.

[11][12] Journalist Gao Yu, a close friend of Bao, stated that he had died of myelodysplastic syndrome, and that the funeral would take place on 15 November 2022.