How should Hu Yaobang be judged?
Reassess Hu’s record and publicly explain the circumstances surrounding his earlier political treatment.
Contemporary text / 02
Students’ words
From mourning and petitions to a demand for dialogue. These excerpts translate passages shown in the Chinese edition and present one declaration from a particular action; they do not speak for every participant.
01 / Declaration excerpts
A public declaration from the hunger strike. It records the words of some students who took part, not a unified statement by everyone in the movement.
BEIJING · MAY 1989“We are young, yet willing to give our lives. We cherish life; we do not want to die.”
“Our country is at a critical moment. Inflation, official profiteering, bureaucratic corruption, power concentrated in the hands of a few … fellow citizens, please hear our voices.”
“China is our country.
We are the people.
The government should be our government.”
“If we do not speak out, who will? If we do not act, who will?”
The declaration protested the government’s failure to engage students, its refusal to hold dialogue and its portrayal of the democratic movement as “turmoil.” It called for equal dialogue on substantive issues and recognition of the movement’s legitimacy.
“We seek life, not death. Democracy is not the work of a few; it requires generation after generation.”
TEXT NOTE
Excerpts from the May 13, 1989 hunger strike declaration. Columbia University’s Asia for Educators project hosts an English translation and teaching context. Wording here is translated from the Chinese edition of this site.
View the local source page and original English text ↗02 / How demands developed
From mourning and petitions to a call for dialogue
In mid-April, students put concerns into petitions. Demands changed as events unfolded. These cards summarize recurring themes in early petitions; versions differ in wording and order.
Oppose corruption and privilege
Disclose the income and assets of senior officials and their families, and challenge profiteering through public office.
Press and speech freedom
Report student actions accurately, permit public disagreement and ease restrictions on publication and assembly.
Improve conditions for educators
Increase investment in education and improve the treatment of teachers and intellectuals.
Equal and substantive exchange
Hold dialogue between officials and student representatives, and respond directly to the issues raised.
Correct misleading labels and reports
Clarify accounts of earlier police–student clashes and reject the blanket description of the movement as “turmoil.”
Revisit earlier political campaigns
Some early petitions also called for reflection on past campaigns and their effect on intellectuals and campus life.
These are summaries, not verbatim quotations. See Amnesty International’s account of the April march and the early petition text.
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The voices were not uniform. That is why they deserve to be heard.
The May 13 declaration represents some hunger strikers. Participants disagreed about withdrawal, what action to take, who could represent students and how to negotiate. Residents and workers brought other concerns. Reducing the history to one unified voice would hide disagreement that existed at the time.
Return to the timeline ↗03 / Beyond the students
Many other voices remain.
Teachers, residents, workers, medical staff and people in other cities took part or offered support. They left leaflets, diaries, interviews and testimony. Gunfire in early June also entered the lives of people who were not demonstrators. Preserving first-person records is part of understanding this history.
Leave a moment of quiet