In 1949, 16-year-old Bao Tong was a high school student in Shanghai. One day, at seven o'clock in the morning, with a copy of "Ta Kung Pao" (the oldest active Chinese language newspaper in China, founded in Tianjin in 1902) under his arm, he followed the instructions to take a walk in the park. He was looking for a contact person who would also be carrying "Ta Kung Pao"; the other person would ask him for the time. Bao Tong would answer: "I don't wear a watch, but I think it's about seven o'clock."

Louisa Lim described this scene in her book, "The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited". Bao Tong had been exposed to the concept of democracy and freedom in political magazines since he was a child. The Chinese Communist Party began trying to recruit Bao Tong as a Party member when he was thirteen. “The Communist Party has always preferred to recruit newcomers who are still ignorant and malleable. There was a glint in his eyes when he told me this,” Louisa Lim wrote. At first, Bao Tong rejected the proposal; but three years later, he received another invitation to join the Party.

The secret signals were successfully exchanged; that day, Bao Tong became a Communist Party member. Six weeks later, the Communist Party took over Shanghai. This marked the beginning of Bao Tong's political career, which lasted until he was expelled from the party in March of 1992.

After graduating from high school, Bao Tong joined the East China Bureau under the CCP's Central Committee, as an officer in the Organization Department's Cadre Division. In 1954, he was transferred to the Central Committee's Organization Department. In 1980, Bao began serving as political secretary to Zhao Ziyang, Premier and member of the State Council. In 1987, Bao was elected as a member of the Central Committee at the CCP's 13th National Congress, and began serving as Director of the Research Office for Political System Reform within the CCP Central Committee.

During the 1989 Democracy Movement, Bao Tong joined Zhao Ziyang (then-General Secretary of the CCP Central Committee) in opposing the authorities' use of force to suppress the democracy movement. This was not accepted by Deng Xiaoping, however. Bao Tong was arrested on May 28, 1989, becoming the highest-ranking official to be arrested in the June 4th crackdown. In July of 1992, he was charged with the crimes of "leaking state secrets" and "spreading counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement", then sentenced to seven years in prison. In May of 1996, after serving his sentence, Bao Tong was released. He has been living under house arrest ever since.

References: Louisa Lim, "The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited".