The Seven Demands
18th Apr, 1989 (Tue)
"Soul of China"
A little after midnight, thousands of students from Beijing University rushed out of the campus onto the streets. Some ten or so students were carrying a very large memorial banner on which had been written "Soul of China". When the marchers passed People's University, another several thousands students from People's University joined their ranks. Around 3000 students reached Tiananmen Square, where they began a sit-in protest, loudly chanting, "Long live freedom!" "Long live rule of law!" "Oppose tyranny!" "Oppose dictatorship!" and singing the internationale.
At dawn, students in the Square attempted to deliver a petition containing seven demands to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's nominal parliament, and to meet with a representative of the NPC. Their demands are:
1. Reevaluate Hu Yaobang and his achievements;
2. Renounce the Anti-Bourgeois Liberalization campaign and the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign
3. Allow citizens to publish nonofficial newspapers and end censorship of the press;
4. Reveal the salaries and other wealth of Party and government leaders and their families;
5. Rescind the Beijing municipal government's "Ten Provisional Articles Regulating Public Marches and Demonstrations";
6. Increase state expenditures for higher education;
7. Provide objective news coverage of the students' demonstration.
At 5.30pm, representatives of the NPC finally came out to receive the students' petition. By 9pm, more than 10,000 people had gathered on Tiananmen Square.
Exhibition Pack on the Tiananmen Massacre 
Facebook
Twitter
Youtube
Buzz
Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China