July 28, 2016
Pro-democracy protesters in Beijing in 1989.
Catherine Henriette/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
BEIJING — Xu Jiatun, a former senior Communist Party official, took many secrets to his grave, say people who knew him.
Since his death in June after 26 years of exile in the United States, new details have emerged of Mr. Xu’s daring escape from China after the suppression of the Tiananmen democracy demonstrations in June 1989 and about the party’s presence in Hong Kong, where from 1983 to 1989 Mr. Xu headed the local office of Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency. That made him China’s de facto representative in what was then a British colony.
This is of more than historical interest, with the forces of communism and democracy locked in a bitter contest in Hong Kong. The Communist Party has always maintained an omertà-like silence about its activities in the territory, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Martin Lee, the founder of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, met with Mr. Xu several times during Mr. Xu’s tenure at Xinhua, Mr. Lee said in an interview.
“One time he and I had lunch, and he told me not to worry too much. Beijing had already brought about 50,000 people into Hong Kong to work in all sectors of life — the civil service, the professions.” If Britain pulled out before the handover, he said, “these people would just take over.”
He intended this to be reassuring, Mr. Lee said. “But now when you look at Hong Kong, I think that they are running this place. Our chief executive is one of them, a secret Communist Party cadre, obviously,” he said, referring to Leung Chun-ying, the territory’s leader.
Mr. Leung has denied that he is a party member.
Mr. Xu made many friends in Hong Kong, including democrats and tycoons, said Kam Kin-yat, whose father, Kam Yiu-yu, was the editor of the pro-Beijing Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po and an old friend of Mr. Xu’s.
Mr. Xu was open-minded, but making friends was also part of his job, Mr. Kam said by telephone from Los Angeles.
Mr. Xu encouraged Mr. Lee, a lawyer, and Szeto Wah, a union organizer, to set up political parties, Mr. Lee said.
In Mr. Xu’s discussions with Mr. Szeto, Mr. Lee said, “he added one thing that he didn’t tell me — that Szeto Wah didn’t have to worry about money. And now, of course, in Hong Kong the pro-Beijing political parties are paid by Beijing, indirectly through local tycoons.”
Mr. Szeto became an outspoken critic of the party after the Tiananmen protests.
As those protests rocked China, Mr. Kam said that Zhao Ziyang, the party general secretary, asked Mr. Xu to evaluate the government’s best response to the demonstrations from a Hong Kong point of view. Mr. Xu told Zhao that a “peaceful resolution” was necessary.
Zhao agreed, but he was dismissed for this stance and placed under lifelong house arrest by hard-liners including Deng Xiaoping. In 1989, Mr. Xu asked to retire but was instead dismissed from his post. In January 1990, a conservative, Zhou Nan, was appointed as his successor.
Mr. Xu moved to Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong, apparently awaiting news of his fate from Beijing. But he took his fate into his own hands.
About 8 p.m. on April 30, Mr. Xu went for his usual evening stroll out of the Xinhua headquarters in Shenzhen, according to Mr. Kam, who said this was the first time he was publicly sharing details of an escape he helped plan.
“He went for a walk empty-handed,” Mr. Kam said. “He didn’t bring a single suitcase.”
Mr. Kam’s role was confirmed by Ho Pin, the publisher of Mirror Media Group, who is based in New York.
Accompanied by a family member, Mr. Xu crossed the border into Hong Kong at Lo Wu, wearing a golf cap for a disguise. He boarded a train, alighting at the Sheung Shui station, and walked about 100 feet along the tracks to where Mr. Kam was waiting in a car.
That same evening, an order from Beijing arrived at the Xinhua office in Shenzhen to confiscate Mr. Xu’s passport, Mr. Kam said.
In Hong Kong, Mr. Xu wrote a letter to Deng, in care of Xinhua in Hong Kong, promising he wouldn’t reveal any secrets. He hoped his family in China would be treated leniently if he remained loyal to that promise, said Mr. Kam, who mailed the letter. The United States Consulate issued Mr. Xu a visa and helped arrange a last-minute air ticket.
Mr. Xu kept his secrets, but the party never granted his wish to return home.
