Former top Chinese Communist official Bao Tong was purged for supporting the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, but he says his frustrations with the system started decades before.

"China's people have wasted 60 years," Bao, now one of the country's top political dissidents, told AFP recently -- before authorities moved him out of Beijing to wait out Thursday's 20th anniversary of the deadly crackdown.

His harsh assessment of the history of the People's Republic of China, founded in October 1949, is one few ordinary Chinese would dare to make.

But the 76-year-old Bao, once a top aide to former Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang, is not your average citizen.

He has spent the past 20 years either in jail, under house arrest or facing other restrictions in his small west Beijing flat, just one block from a major road where protesters battled tanks and troops.

He sees no sign of political openness on the horizon and says Beijing's failure to come clean on the events of June 3-4, 1989 and give justice to victims has been a key factor stunting democratic development.

"It has had a seriously negative impact. It has made China a country with no voice.... a country in which no one can demand fairness," he said in the interview at his apartment.

"I am a sample on display," Bao says with a smirk, charging the government only allows foreign journalists to interview him to give the impression of openness, while preventing anything he says from being disseminated in China.

Bao was dragged down along with Zhao, who was ousted from his position as general secretary of the Communist Party for sympathising with the student protesters who had rallied for weeks.

Zhao had opposed the use of force against the demonstrators, but was overruled by party hardliners. Hundreds, and possibly thousands, were killed in the army crackdown.

Bao, who once directed a top Communist party political reform office, is still lean and energetic.

He now spends much of his time doing interviews with or fielding calls from foreign media on a phone whose ring tone is the Disney theme "It's a Small World."

Bao said China's current leaders bear no blame for what happened in Tiananmen Square -- and could earn great praise both at home and abroad on this anniversary by being more forthcoming.

"They are still the nation's leaders and I hope they can openly tell the Chinese people and the world what happened," he said.

But the party's unwillingness to admit any mistakes will prevent that and the Chinese people are too intimidated to demand such honesty, he added.

Much of the blame lies with the rest of the world for refusing to push China to heal the wounds, said Bao, adding that other countries were increasingly hesitant to rile China due to its growing economic and diplomatic clout.

"Not wanting to offend China means they cannot help China, cannot help China's people attain their own rights, and cannot help the world community gain a reliable, stable, peaceful member," he said.

"This is not a good thing."

As the Communist Party gears up to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, Bao said there was little to celebrate.

The party wasted a lifetime with collectivisation of the economy launched in 1953, only to come full circle with today's run-away capitalism.

"(We) have come back to the original point. The work of 1.3 billion people has been wasted for 56 years," he said.

"This is a crime greater than (the Tiananmen crackdown)."

Bao expressed delight with the May release in English of Zhao's memoirs, put together from secret tape recordings the deposed leader made while under house arrest. His son, Bao Pu, is publishing the Chinese version of the book.

He said he hoped the book, likely to be banned in China, could somehow be distributed in the country and spark debate.

But he admitted the ghosts of Tiananmen would not likely be laid to rest any time soon due to the nature of a government for which he wishes he had never worked.

"I regret that I only realised all of this 20 years ago. Why couldn't I have realised it 40 years ago or 60 years ago?" he lamented.

background report
Tiananmen Square: 10 key figures
The following are brief profiles of the 10 people -- students, politicians and others -- who played key roles in the drama that unfolded in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989:

THE STUDENTS

-- Wang Dan, the moderate (born 1969). A student from the elite Peking University, he was replaced as leader of the movement by more radical protesters. After his arrest in July 1989, he was sentenced in 1991 to four years in jail. He was released in 1993, but arrested again in 1995 on subversion charges and sentenced to another 11 years in prison. In 1998, he was deported to the United States. He continues his campaign for democracy in China in the west.

-- Chai Ling, the muse (born 1966). The tiny woman was known as the "general commander" of the protest headquarters at Tiananmen Square. After the crackdown, she was put on the list of the 21 most wanted students, but after 10 months on the run she managed to escape to France. She now lives in the United States, where she works as an Internet entrepreneur.

-- Wu'er Kaixi, the rebel (born 1968). A member of the Uighur ethnic minority, he became a celebrity overnight after he interrupted Premier Li Peng during a meeting between student leaders and politicians aired live on state television on May 18, 1989. He was able to flee China after the June 4 crackdown and now lives in Taiwan.

THE POLITICIANS

-- Deng Xiaoping, the patriarch (1904-1997). The most influential of the leaders, the chairman of the Central Military Commission and father of economic reform tilted the balance in favour of a hard line and ordered the army to fire on protesters after six weeks of rallies that left the government paralysed.

-- Zhao Ziyang, the disgraced reformer (1919-2005). As general secretary of the Communist Party, he supported dialogue between the government and the protesters. On May 19, 1989, he visited the students on Tiananmen Square, and, in tears, urged them to leave. This was his last public appearance. He was relieved of his duties in June and placed under house arrest until his death.

-- Li Peng, the hardliner (born 1928). He was made prime minister in 1988 and also a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party's Politburo, the heart of political power in China. Announcing martial law on May 19, he paved the way for the crackdown.

THE INTELLECTUALS

-- Fang Lizhi, the veteran dissident (born 1936). Even if this famous astrophysicist did not participate directly in the Tiananmen movement, his ideas were a clear inspiration. He had been thrown out of the Communist Party in 1987, and shortly after the crackdown in 1989, the authorities issued an arrest order against him. He escaped into the US embassy, and was granted political asylum in the United States in 1991.

-- Liu Xiaobo, the mediator (born 1955). The author was popular among the young for his criticism of traditional Chinese values, and further joined the students in a hunger strike on Tiananmen Square. On the night of June 3 and into the early hours of June 4, as the army proceeded to clear the square, he attempted to negotiate an orderly evacuation. He was later arrested and spent a year and a half in jail without ever being formally sentenced.

THE ARTIST

-- Cui Jian, the rocker (born 1961). The "father of rock" in China appeared several times on Tiananmen Square in 1989, and one of his works, "Nothing to My Name", became the unofficial fight song of the student movement.

THE UNKNOWN HERO

-- On June 5, the day after the crackdown, a young man placed himself in front of a column of tanks, preventing it from passing down the Avenue of Heavenly Peace in the heart of Beijing. At one point he even mounted the front tank to appeal to its crew, but bystanders eventually dragged him away. Photos and footage of the "Tank Man" immediately made top news around the world, and he went down in history as a symbol of peaceful and unarmed protesters confronting military repression. His name remains unknown to this day.