Friends and family gathered yesterday for the funeral of veteran Chinese dissident Bao Zunxin (
Bao, a former historian at the official Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, died on Oct. 28 of a brain hemorrhage. He was 70.
Bao served close to three-and-a-half years in prison for anti-government incitement for his part in the student-led pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing's Tiananmen Square that were violently suppressed by the Chinese military on the night of June 3 to June 4, 1989.
About 100 people attended the funeral at Beijing's Dongjiao Crematorium. Some of them delivered brief eulogies recalling Bao's life and political activism.
There was little overt police presence at the funeral hall, although crematorium employees told a foreign TV crew to stop filming, saying special permits were required.
Another Beijing human rights activist, Hu Jia (胡佳), said he had been told by a district official from the State Security Bureau that already stringent restrictions on him and his wife were tightened further from Friday night.
"The goal was to prevent at all costs any chance of us being there to see off the respected Mr Bao," Hu said, adding that eight bureau agents had followed him and his pregnant wife, Zheng Jinyan (
Yin Weihong, another veteran of the Tiananmen protests, said he had heard of a number of dissidents being barred from attending the funeral.
"They are taking a much harsher approach than usual," Yin said by telephone from his home in Wenzhou, 1,400km south of Beijing. Yin said agents from the local State Security Bureau who regularly check on his activities had asked whether he was planning on attending the funeral.
"I'm sure if I'd tried they would have stopped me," Yin said.
Like many among the older generation of Chinese dissidents, Bao continued to campaign for civic rights after his release, for which he was briefly detained twice.
In 1996, Bao authored a petition urging China's rubber-stamp legislature to order public officials to disclose their finances as a way to combat pervasive corruption.
Bao complained that China lacked the public debate, division of government powers and independent judiciary that check corruption in other countries.
"It is of no use to merely rely on the fostering of goodness and morality among public officials to contain corruption," Bao wrote in his petition to the legislature, which was ignored by the government.
Bao earlier edited a series of influential publications during the 1980s that promoted Western social science theories.
He was expelled from the Communist Party after his arrest, which was apparently sparked by his helping to write a petition that mocked Deng Xiaoping (
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source