Today in 1989: March to Tiananmen

At 1pm, April 17, 1989, six or seven hundred students and teachers in University of Political Science and Law headed out of the campus toward Tiananmen Square. It was the first demonstration of 1989.  At 11pm, three thousand students in Peking University grabbed a giant banner, dedicated to Hu Yaobang as "China's Soul,"  marched into Tiananmen via Xinhuamen.  Around 300 university students around at 3.30am on 18 April continued to stage a sit-in in front of the People’s Congress, to submit the Seven-Point Demands ( roughly translate into English ):

1. Reevaluate Hu Yaobang and his achievements, Affirm as correct Hu Yaobang's views on democracy freedom and tolerance;2. Renounce the Anti-Bourgeois Liberalization campaign and the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign;3. Freedom of Press and Freedom of speech, Permit citizens to publish independent newspapers;4. Publicize the income of the Party-State leaders and their family members;5. Rescind the Beijing municipal government's "Ten Provisional Articles Regulating Public Marches and Demonstrations";6. Increase budget for education and raise intellectuals' salary;7. Report the student movement objectively.
 

Xiao Jie (肖杰, aka 肖峰杰),  student at People's University in China, one of student representatives, handed in the Seven-Point Demands in the Great Hall of People. Xiao organized a society to invesigate social and political phenomena and debate politics.

Xiao had a train ticket to Chengdu, Sichuan dated June 5, 1989.  At about 2:00 p.m. on 5 June, he was walking on the south side of Nanchizi. When he was crossing the road, he passed over the red enforcement line and when he failed to heed the "stop" shout of the martial law troops, he was shot dead by a bullet in the back which came out through the chest. At about 4:00 p.m., the Public Security Bureau, having found his student ID on his body, informed the university to collect his corpse. http://www.tiananmenmother.org/

Tweets in Chinese， @shaojiang

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#六四死难者 人民大学学生 #肖杰 笔名 #肖峰杰 参加4月17－18日的游行和静坐，作为学生代表进入人民大会堂内，要求人大常委会正式接收和回覆请愿七条。 #八九六四 #八九六四二五 http://twitpic.com/e1blfu

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