On May 11, 1989, two days after more than 1,000 reporters had submitted a petition, Hu Qili, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), went to "China Youth Daily" to engage in dialog with reporters and editors, and to listen to the public's opinions on news reform. Also participating in the dialog were Song Defu and Li Yuanchao, first secretary and secretary, respectively, of the Communist Youth League of China Central Committee; Yu Shiguang, former president of "China Youth Daily"; and Wang Shi, former editor-in-chief of "China Youth Daily". The meeting was chaired by Xu Zhiqing, who was at the time president and editor-in-chief of the newspaper.

At the meeting, Li Datong, the person who took the lead in drafting the petition, put forward demands for journalistic reform and for the "World Economic Herald" matter to be looked into again. Hu Qili responded that journalistic reform had come to the point where it must be reformed. He affirmed that reporting on the student movement would increase transparency and openness, and apologized for the belated dialog: "As our central cadre in charge of propaganda and news, and as old youth workers, we should talk to our 'China Youth Daily' comrades, and maintained direct contact. However, I have not done this in the past. I would like to express my apologies to everyone."

At the same time, Hu Qili also stated: "Comrade Ziyang emphasized that news reform is not only the general trend, but also the aspiration of the people. Faced with where the people's hearts are leaning, and facing the trend of international progress, we must guide well in light of the circumstances. News reports must be really objective, comprehensive, truthful, and timely. This is also part of building the nation's democratic politics. News reports must tell the truth, must never, ever create fake news, and must not conceal the facts. To make the news truly the mouthpiece of the party and the people, they must make the people believe in what is being reported."

Li Datong recalled that the dialog lasted for three or four hours. "The atmosphere was lively, and everyone spoke freely, without reservations." Hu Qili promised there that the CCP Central Committee would immediately begin drafting a Central Committee decision on reform of the news system. Over the next two days, Rui Xingwen (then a member of the Central Committee Secretariat) and Yan Mingfu (then a Politburo secretary), along with Wang Renzhi (head of the CCP Central Committee's Propaganda Department at the time) paid repeated visits to Xinhua News Agency, the "People's Daily", and the "Guangming Daily".

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)]" (https://blog.bnn.co/hero/201105/wurenhua/11_1.shtml); [BBC中文網("BBC News Chinese Edition")(Chinese)] (https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/chinese-news-48312262)