Chen Xitong
On April 22, during Hu's state funeral, students knelt down in front of the Great Hall of the People demanding an audience with Li Peng, the Premier of the State Council, but were ignored. Chen Xitong blamed lower party officials for leading the students to believe they could have an audience with Li Peng. Chen Xitong, on April 23, called a meeting with presidents of various Beijing universities, chastised them for their passivity and asked them to gather more information on the protests. On the same day, Li Ximing, Beijing Party Secretary, and Chen Xitong convinced Wan Li, Chairman of the Standing Committee, to call a meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) to address the issue of the student protest. On April 24, Li Peng presided over a PSC meeting at which Chen Xitong and Li Ximing made official reports on behalf of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee. They presented the student protest as planned and well organized. In their reports, they stressed that protests were happening simultaneously nationwide and stated that the Committee should not take the protest lightly. They argued that the protests included "...high school students and workers..." and were growing at an alarming rate. They also highlighted remarks targeted at Deng Xiaoping, the paramount leader of the People’s Republic. Based on this report, Li Peng updated Deng Xiaoping on the protests and Deng responded that "this was no ordinary student movement." By April 25 phone lines at Peking University dorms were cut and telegrams blocked. On April 26, the "People’s Daily" published an editorial, based largely on Deng Xiaoping's reaction to Li Peng's report that painted the protest as turmoil. This echoed rhetoric of the Cultural Revolution and exacerbated the protests. On April 27 students repeatedly broke police lines meant to deter them from going to the square. On April 30 Chen Xitong and Li Ximing met with the Beijing College Student Association, an officially approved organization that was not affiliated with the protesting students.