On April 19, Shanghai's "World Economic Herald" newspaper held a symposium in Beijing to commemorate Hu Yaobang. The participants included many representatives of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s "enlightened" faction, such as Hu Jiwei, Li Rui, Yan Jiaqi, Dai Qing, and more than 100 other intellectuals. After the event, "World Economic Herald" published content from the symposium. The content included pleading on behalf of Hu Yaobang, asking the government to open dialog with the students, and asking the government to implement democratic reforms. The participants clearly conveyed their support for the student demonstrations, expressing that they "had seen China's future and hope".

After the article was published, Jiang Zemin, then a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party and Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, strongly criticized the content of the article. Jiang demanded that Qin Benli, Editor-In-Chief of "World Economic Herald", delete the content; this was refused. Jiang Zemin then ordered the "World Economic Herald" be banned, terminated Qin Benli's post as editor-in-chief, and dispatched a working team to take over. Due to the fact that the matter involved press freedom, many journalists and intellectuals came forward to protest. This helped turn the student movement gradually develop into a national movement.

References: "The Big Bang of History: A Complete Record of the June 4th Incident"; "The Tiananmen Papers"; [《八九天安門事件大事記》 ("Timeline of the 1989 Tian'anmen Square Incident")(Chinese)] (http://blog.bnn.co/hero/201104/wurenhua/7_1.shtml); [BBC中文網("BBC News Chinese Edition")(Chinese)] (https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/chinese-news-48312262); [中央廣播電台("Radio Taiwan International")(Chinese)] (https://www.rti.org.tw/news/view/id/2067443)