In 1989, after Deng Xiaoping orchestrated the Tiananmen Square massacre, a number of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials who sympathized with and supported the student movement were forced to flee China. Among them, the oldest, highest‑ranking, and most prominent was Xu Jiatun, a former CCP Central Committee member, head of Xinhua’s Hong Kong bureau, and secretary of the Hong Kong-Macau Work Committee.
Xu Jiatun was born in 1916 in Rugao, Jiangsu. In his early years, he joined the New Fourth Army and fought as a revolutionary veteran. He later rose to become the first secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee, a Central Committee member, a member of the Central Advisory Commission, and a standing committee member of the National People’s Congress. As a “Red Aristocrat” and senior official at the provincial‑ministerial level, his loyalty was once considered beyond reproach.
In 1983, at age 67, Xu Jiatun was appointed secretary of the Hong Kong-Macau Work Committee and head of Xinhua’s Hong Kong branch, becoming the CCP’s top representative in Hong Kong. He worked there for seven years, known for his openness and liberal outlook. After being dismissed on January 15, 1991, he temporarily resided in Nanxiu Garden, Shenzhen, where he began to notice a tightening web of surveillance.
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