Chinese journalist Gao Yu: an egg breaking against the Communist Party's wall
Fearless journalist has spent her life shining a light into the corridors of power; now 71 and jailed again, she remains uncowed
Professor Ding Zilin has fond memories of Gao Yu, one of her brightest former students at Renmin University in Beijing.
At the start of the Cultural Revolution in June 1966, Red Guards were preparing to drag Ding, then a young lecturer, to a political rally to be denounced and tortured. Gao overheard their plan and at considerable risk to herself, quietly warned Ding and helped her flee to the countryside.
“Fifty years on, she is still the same character. She hasn’t changed,” said Ding of Gao’s courage and sense of justice. “Though she is now classed as a criminal, I am proud to have had her as my student.”
Gao went on to become one of the country’s most respected journalists, famed for her writings on the inner workings and political struggles in the country’s top echelon of power.
Last month, at the age of 71, she was jailed for the third time in her life. On April 17, a Beijing court sentenced her to seven years in prison for leaking state secrets abroad. She allegedly passed an internal Communist Party memo called Document No 9 on ideological controls to a US-based news website, an accusation she denied.
Few who have met Gao fail to be impressed by her sharp intellect, boldness and courage. Ironically, these are the very qualities that result in her being sent to jail, her friends and associates say.
Wang Dan, a student leader in the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement who Gao tried to persuade to leave the square before the military crackdown on June 4, said: “She knew very well the danger of writing about top leaders but that didn’t make her flinch. And that’s why she has gone to jail for a third time.”