April 26 Editorial

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The April 26 Editorial was a front-page article published in People's Daily on April 26, 1989, during the Tiananmen Square protests. The editorial effectively defined the student movement as a destabilizing anti-party revolt that should be resolutely opposed at all levels of society. As the first authoritative document from the top leadership on the growing movement, it was widely interpreted as having communicated the party's zero-tolerance position to student protesters and their sympathizers. The contents of the editorial were derived from a meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) during the 13th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the residence of Deng Xiaoping on the morning of April 25. During the meeting, the PSC came to the general agreement that the students aimed to overthrow Communist rule and were being heavily influenced by similar anti-Communist movements in Eastern Europe. As such, it threatened the survival of the existing senior leadership, the CCP, and the political system itself. Deputy chief of propaganda Zeng Jianhui wrote the draft, while Hu Qili and Li Peng served as editors. On the evening of April 25, the finished editorial could be heard on national radio and television news stations. The editorial enraged the student protesters, widened the chasm between the students and the CCP leadership, and emerged as a sore point of contention for the rest of the movement. Students protested in large numbers on April 27, and thereafter continuously asked for the editorial to be retracted. Within the party leadership, Zhao Ziyang advocated for the editorial to be "toned down" or rescinded, but faced significant opposition and was unsuccessful.