Bao Tong was once a political high-flyer, and as secretary to the Party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee held a rank equivalent to a cabinet minister.

He was the most trusted aide of late Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang, sacked in 1989 for sympathising with student protesters and put under house arrest until his death in 2005. Bao was jailed for seven years.

Now Bao is a thorn in the government’s side and under constant surveillance, and has used the October 1 anniversary of 60 years of Communist rule to write a stinging statement condemning Party mismanagement and disregard for the people.

“How many hard-working farmers died of starvation during the last 60 years? How many mistakes were made? How many good and honest people have died?” Bao wrote, according to a copy of his statement obtained by Reuters.

“The Party and the government have a responsibility to systematically and fully tell the owners of the nation,” he added, in reference to ordinary Chinese.

“The Party and the government should not gloss over their faults.”

The cabinet spokesman’s office, reached by telephone, declined immediate comment on the statement.

Bao pointed the blame at problems such as suppression of all forms of dissent and freedom of religion, environmental degradation and corruption at the Party’s door.

“The long-term, nationally pervasive mistakes of the last 60 years were all led by and planned by the Communist Party,” he wrote.

What China needed was real democracy, with leaders directly elected by the people, Bao said.

“All leaders who truly love the country have a responsibility to stop infringing on the peoples’ rights, and should give back power to the people.”

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Benjamin Kang Lim and Jerry Norton)

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/09/25/world/international-uk-china-anniversary-bao.html