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24/4 - 4/5 : The Editorial

 

In response to the Government rejection of a dialogue, the Beijing students began their class-boycott, they made public speeches and held fund-raising campaign to lobby support for their movement.

On April 24th, students of 35 Beijing universities began their class-boycott, Shanghai, Changsha, Xian, Nanjing students followed suit.

On 26th April, the “People’s Daily” editorial condemned the students’ movement as “turmoil”, and called it a “conspiracy”. This editorial angered the populace, the next day 200,000 students rallied on all main streets supported by 1 million citizens rulling along. The military and police attempted to stop the rally without success, which marked an important battle won by the joint forces of the students and the people.

On 28th April, the Autonomous Students Union of Beijing was formed and put forward its Seven Demands. The next day State Council officials for the first time conducted a dialogue with some of the students. The day after Beijing City Councillor also conducted a dialogue with 29 Beijing students.

On 1st and 2nd May, the Autonomous Students Union of Beijing demanded an honest, equal and open dialogue with the Government, and planed to hold a rally on 4th May if this demand was not met. The next day its demanded was rejected by the State Council.

On 4th May, the day of the 70th Anniversary of the May 4th Movement, over 100,000 students marched to Tiananmen Square. They were joined by several hundred news media workers. The student movement has taken a new course to demand freedom of press, crackdown on corruption and continuation of political reform.