On May 15, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrived in Beijing for a visit. In the early morning of that day, at the appeal of Wu'er Kaixi, the hunger strikers moved to the east section of Tian'anmen Square and gave up the west side of the Square adjacent to the Great Hall of the People for the authorities to hold a welcome ceremony. However, President Yang Shangkun eventually changed the welcome ceremony venue to the airport. In addition, as the protests had already spread to Chang'an Avenue, Gorbachev's motorcade had to avoid the area.

At that time, Gorbachev was promoting political reforms in the Soviet Union and was popular with Chinese students. According to "The Critical Moment – Li Peng Diaries", Li Peng and others held a welcome banquet for Gorbachev and his wife in the Great Hall of the People that night. During the banquet, Gorbachev said: "The Soviet Union is in a period of great change, changing in every way. It is not good to change too fast, and it is even worse to change too slowly." He said, even more proudly: "Foreign commentary has said that China is ahead in economic reform, while the Soviet Union is ahead in political reform. What do you all think?" Li Peng responded, "Every country has its own situation, and each person has their own way." Raisa Gorbacheva also shared at the banquet how she and her husband were warmly welcomed by the Chinese masses.

While all this way happening, students and workers in the Square attempted several times to storm the Great Hall of the People. There were even rumors that students had been injured. Li Peng wrote in his diary: "This was them using Gorbachev's visit to blackmail the government."

References: "The Critical Moment – Li Peng Diaries"; Jeremy Brown, "June Fourth: The Tiananmen Protests and Beijing Massacre of 1989"