Tiananmen Square to try to persuade students to return to classes. On 16 May (while meetings connected with Gorbachev's vist were taking place nearby) Yan Mingfu went to the square to urge students to give up their hunger strike and return to their campuses. On 18 May Zhao Ziyang, Li Peng, Qiao Shi and Hu Qili, accompanied by Rui Xingwen and Luo Gan, visited hunger strikers in hospital, Zhao said "a variety of methods can be adopted to exchange views and resolve problems... you are very young, and you will have a long time for making contributions to the state and the nation". Later that day Li Peng met representatives of the student hunger strikers in the Great Hall of the People. The talks broke up because Li Peng would not agree to the meeting going out live on Chinese television. In a final attempt to end the student occupation of Tiananmen Square Zhao Ziyang went to the square with Li Peng on 18 May. He was clearly distressed. "We came too late" he said. Peng appeared irritated and impatient. This was Zhao Ziyang's last publicly reported appearance.
•
Li
3. The Sino-Soviet summit, held from 15-18 May, severely disrupted by the students activities. The welcoming ceremony presided over by Yang Shangkun, looking very dapper in a western suit, had to take place at the airport instead of the Great Hall of the People. Talks between Gorbachev and Yang were held later in the Great Hall of the People, though Gorbachev was forced to enter through the back door. On 16 May Li Peng held talks with Gorbachev and said "people in socialist countries should enjoy freedom, democracy and human rights. China is prepared to prove this aspect of its political reform". On the same day, Zhao Ziyang held talks with Gorbachev, which marked the formal normalisation of party to party relations. Zhao commented that although Deng Xiaoping had withdrawn from the Central Committee and the Politburo "we cannot do without him, without his wisdom and experience. We formally adopted
-
a decision at the first Plenary session of the 13th CCP Central Committee although this decision has never been published, it is a very important decision that, on the most important questions we still need him as the helmsman. This information has never been published for the outside world until now". Deng Xiaoping's historic meeting with Gorbachev took place on 16 May, and was his last public appearance for almost a month. The period of the
Sino-Soviet summit appears to have been the turning point in the leadership's attitude to the student demonstrations. The conciliatory approach thought to have come from Zhao Ziyang soon shifted to the hardline approach put forward by Li Peng, presumably with strong backing from the party elders and Deng Xiaoping. Deng may have felt
humiliated by the circumstances of the summit, sensing that he was shown to be a leader unable to control his own people.
VC6AFB