At 4:45am on May 19, after the Politburo Standing Committee meeting, Zhao Ziyang, accompanied by Wen Jiabao, went to the Square to visit the students on hunger strike. Standing in the midst of the students, Zhao Ziyang picked up a megaphone and said to the students, "Students, we came too late. I am sorry, students. For you to talk about us, to criticize us, this is as it should be." "You are all now very physically weak. You've been hunger-striking for seven days. It can’t go on like this." "You are still young, with your whole lives ahead of you. You should live in good health and see the day when China realizes the four modernizations. You are not like us; we are already old, we are no longer of any importance. In short, this is what I wanted to say from my heart. If you stop the hunger strike, the government will use this as an excuse to close the door on dialog, absolutely not!"

After he finished speaking, Zhao bowed to the students in the Square. The students responded with warm applause, and some people shed tears. The book "The Big Bang of History: A Complete Record of the June 4th Incident" records, "This bleak speech could not but remind one that the political situation had changed; Zhao was saying goodbye to people across the entire country." On the morning of the 19th, Zhao Ziyang applied to the Politburo for sick leave. In the power struggle at the top of the Chinese Communist Party, the reformists and moderates — who had advocated for resolving the issue through negotiation and dialog — had completely lost power.

That same day, Li Peng criticized Zhao Ziyang's speech in his journal: "Zhao made a show of bowing to and saluting the students. Zhao was making a desperate last gamble to expose the differences within the Central Committee to the students, further inciting the students' antagonistic emotions." According to "The Tiananmen Papers", Deng Xiaoping was emotionally agitated after hearing this speech, and scolded: "What exactly did you hear him say? All weeping, looking so aggrieved. He was truly excessively out of line with organizational principles, excessively lacking in discipline."

References: "The Big Bang of History: A Complete Record of the June 4th Incident"; "A Tian'anmen Journal"; "The Critical Moment – Li Peng Diaries"; "The Tiananmen Papers"; "Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang"