Tiananmen Square - 1989 revisited - part 14

The fourteenth part in a PBS piece published in 2001 by Andrew J. Nathan and Perry Link:

May 18

Zhao Ziyang visits hospitalized hunger strikers and tries to convince them to call off their fast. Afterward, he is reported to have drafted a letter of resignation to the Politburo, but it is never sent. Li Peng holds a televised meeting with student leaders in the Great Hall of the People (see a map of Tiananmen Square). It ends without any progress. (Read the translated transcript of the meeting.)

That evening a meeting of Party elders and Politburo members, including Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng, approves the declaration of martial law. Zhao Ziyang does not attend.

June 5



Tim White