In these bright and beautiful days of May, we are beginning a hunger strike. In this moment of most beautiful and happy youth, we must leave life\u2019s happiness behind. We do this ever so unwillingly!<\/p>\n
Yet [we must do so], for our country is in a critical state. Prices are soaring, official profiteering is rampant, power is concentrated in the hands of the few, and the bureaucracy is corrupt. The country is losing large numbers of patriotic, upstanding Chinese who are living overseas but are willing to devote themselves to the betterment of their motherland. Social order and public security deteriorate day by day. At this life-and-death moment of the nation\u2019s fate, countrymen of conscience, please listen to us!<\/p>\n
This country is our country, \nThese people are our people, \nThis government is our government, \nIf we do not cry out, who will? \nIf we do not act, who will?<\/p>\n
Though our shoulders are still fragile, though death still seems too great a burden for us , we are ready to leave you. We could not but go. History asks this of us.<\/p>\n
Our purest feelings of patriotism and loyalty to the nation have been called \u201cturmoil\u201d, and we have been described as having \u201culterior motives\u201d, and being \u201cexploited by a small handful of people\u201d.<\/p>\n
We ask every upright Chinese citizen \u2014 every worker, peasant, soldier, civilian, intellectual, noted figure, government official, policeman, and those who have made these accusations against us \u2013 to place your hand on your heart and ask your conscience: What crimes have we committed? Are we creating turmoil? What has caused us to demonstrate, to boycott classes, to fast, to hide? Our words have not been heard in good faith. We were beaten by police when we marched, though we hungered only for truth. Our representatives knelt for hours presenting our petition, only to be ignored by the government. Our requests for dialogue have been put off again and again. The safety of our student leaders is now uncertain.<\/p>\n
What are we to do? \nDemocracy is the highest of human aspirations, freedom the innate birthright of all human beings. But today these must be bought with our lives. How can Chinese people be proud of this?<\/p>\n
We are going on hunger strike because there\u2019s no other alternative, and because that is what we should do. \nReady to face death, we fight for life. \nBut we are children, we are children still! Mother China, look at your sons and daughters. As hunger destroys their youth, as death closes in on them, can you remain indifferent?<\/p>\n
We do not want to die; we want to live, to live fully, for we are at life\u2019s most promising age. We do not want to die; we want to study. Our motherland is so impoverished, it feels as if we are abandoning her to die. Yet death is not what we seek. But if the death of one or a few people can enable more to live better, and can make our motherland prosperous, then we have no right to cling to life.<\/p>\n
We say to our dear mothers and fathers, do not feel sorry for us when we are hungry; to our aunts and uncles, do not grieve for us when we leave this life. We have only one hope, that we may all live better lives. We have only one request, that you remember this: our pursuit is life, not death. Democracy is not a task for a few, it takes generations.<\/p>\n
May this declaration, written with our lives, break up the clouds that cast their shadows over the People\u2019s Republic of China.<\/p>\n
We are doing this: \nto protest the government\u2019s indifference to the student demonstrations \nto protest the government\u2019s failure to enter into a dialogue with students \nto protest the government\u2019s unfair characterization of the student democratic movement as \u201cturmoil\u201d and the further distortion of it in newspaper coverage.<\/p>\n
We request: \nan immediate and equal dialogue of substance between the government and the students \nan acknowledgement by the government of the legitimacy of the student democratic movement. \nTime of the hunger strike: Begins at 2:00 P.M., May 13, 1989. \nPlace of the hunger strike: Tiananmen Square. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n[This series was originally posted by CDT in 2009 to mark the 20th anniversary of the protests. If you have access to additional sources of original reporting, video, accounts or photos from the spring of 1989, please send them to us at\u00a0cdt@chinadigitaltimes.net\u00a0and we\u2019ll consider including them in this series. Many thanks.]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This year marks the 30th anniversary of the nationwide, student-led democracy movement in China, and the subsequent June 4th military crackdown in Beijing. To commemorate the student movement, CDT is posting a series of original news articles from 1989, beginning with the death of Hu Yaobang on April 15 and continuing through the tumultuous spring. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1088,"featured_media":212551,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7799,99,34,14744,14745,14746,100,5],"tags":[5899,17718,2763],"class_list":["post-212550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7799","category-cdt-highlights","category-human-rights","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-politics","category-society","tag-1989-protests","tag-1989-timeline-series","tag-hunger-strike","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n
30 Years Ago: Students Declare Hunger Strike<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n