At 11:00am on May 18, Li Peng, Li Tieying, and Yan Mingfu had talks with student representatives such as Wang Dan and Wu'er Kaixi in the Great Hall of the People. According to "The Critical Moment – Li Peng Diaries", Hu Qili suggested that he should meet the hunger-striking students that morning. Li Peng thought it was time to publicly express the Central Committee's attitude, so he readily agreed.

At the beginning of the dialog, Li Peng said that the only issue to be discussed that day would be the student hunger strike situation; Wu'er Kaixi, Wang Dan and others instead advocated entering into substantive talks as soon as possible, including refuting editorials and affirming the students' patriotic actions. Xiong Yan, a Peking University student, said: "Whether the government recognizes it as a patriotic democratic movement or not, history will recognize it. But why is there a special need for recognition from the government and other parties? This represents a desire by the people: they want to see whether the government is actually our government. That is the question here. Second, we are people who fight for communism; we are all people with conscience and humanity. In order to solve problems like these, we have to set aside everything, including our pride. As long as the people's government admits its mistakes, the people will support the government. Third, when have opinions about Premier Li Peng, it is not about you personally; it is because you are the Republic's Premier."

After everyone finished speaking, Li Peng made a few comments. He first suggested that the hunger-striking students should be taken to the hospital by the Red Cross Society of China and Beijing, and hoped that other students would render assistance in this. In addition, he emphasized that the Party Central Committee had never said that the students were "causing turmoil", and said that "there is absolutely no intention of imposing responsibility on the students." Afterwards, the students were unable to make any more substantive demands. The conversation did not end on good terms.

References: Zhang Wanshu, "The Big Bang of History: A Complete Record of the June 4th Incident"; Wang Dan, "The Memoirs of Wang Dan — From June 4th to Exile"; Feng Congde, "A Tiananmen Journal"; "The Critical Moment – Li Peng Diaries"; "The Tiananmen Papers"; Jeremy Brown, "June Fourth: The Tiananmen Protests and Beijing Massacre of 1989"