(Clearwisdom.net) Eleven years ago, on January 23, 2001, five individuals set fire to themselves on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Within hours of the event, footage of the grisly scene was continuously broadcast over the state-controlled media throughout China, as well as around the world, with reports claiming that the self-immolators were Falun Gong practitioners. The incident shocked the world, and within China, public opinion began to turn from respect and sympathy for Falun Gong to mistrust and vilification. However, an analysis of the entire event clearly shows that the “self-immolation” was a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) fabrication set up to discredit Falun Gong.
The CCP’s mouthpiece, against its usual practice, broadcast the incident to the world an hour later, claiming that five Falun Gong practitioners set themselves on fire at Tiananmen Square. The regime later changed the number to seven. That same day, the Minghui/Clearwisdom website published a statement by the Falun Dafa Information Center entitled “A Staged Tragedy: Self-immolation in Tiananmen Square.” The article called for an independent investigation into the incident. Later on, Falun Gong practitioners pointed out numerous discrepancies in the event as portrayed by the CCP regime, and exposed how the CCP orchestrated the “self-immolation” with the goal to discredit Falun Gong and fan hatred against the practice. With public support for the then one-and-a-half-year persecution waning, the CCP used the “self-immolation” to create an excuse to intensify the persecution of Falun Gong.
Harming Oneself Is Against the Principles of Falun Gong
The principles of Falun Gong's clearly forbid killing, including suicide. The indisputable fact is that in the 11 years prior to the “self-immolation” there had not been a single case of self-immolation among Falun Gong practitioners, either inside or outside of China.
Peaceful Resistance to Persecution
In the face of the CCP's lies and slander, Falun Gong practitioners have resisted the persecution and clarified the facts to people in a peaceful and rational manner for over ten years, inside and outside of China. Over the last twelve years of brutal persecution, Falun Gong practitioners have continuously clarified the facts to people in Mainland China through various peaceful and rational means, including speaking with people face to face, making phone calls, and distributing informational flyers or periodicals. From person to person and through the printed word, practitioners have been presenting the facts about Falun Gong – how Falun Gong teaches people to be good and kind, how the practice benefits people physically and spiritually – as well as exposing the brutal persecution of practitioners in China.
Falun Gong practitioners in Mainland China are risking the danger of arrest, forced labor and prison to clarify the facts to people. They persist so that people (including those who have participated in the persecution) will not continue to be deceived by the CCP’s lies, and also so that more people can benefit from Falun Gong's principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
Falun Gong practitioners outside of China often participate in community activities – festivals, parades, and workshops – to bring the beauty of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to the local people. Falun Gong is embraced in over 100 countries and regions throughout the world. The rationality and peacefulness of Falun Gong practitioners have enabled people to see through the CCP's lies, understand Falun Gong and see the brutality of the persecution.
“Self-immolation” Riddled with Inconsistencies
The fabricated “self-immolation” event orchestrated by the CCP contains many holes and inconsistencies, which have long been exposed. On February 4, 2001, the Washington Post published a report titled “Human Fire Ignites Chinese Mystery.” The reporter had traveled to Kaifeng, the hometown of Liu Chunling, one of the self-immolators, to investigate. He reported that Liu’s neighbors said, “… no one ever saw her practice Falun Gong.”
CCTV’s “Focal Point” programs, a mouthpiece for the CCP, were full of inconsistencies that underscored the fabrication. For instance, police do not usually carry fire extinguishers while patrolling Tiananmen Square. However, on January 23, 2001, a great deal of fire extinguishing equipment was ready on Tiananmen Square. Shortly after the “self-immolation” began, the police were able to produce over twenty fire extinguishers and fire blankets from two police vans within minutes, to deal with the “sudden” incident.
Reporters from the regime’s mouthpiece had gotten word about what was to happen even earlier. They turned up prepared, and were able to take well-framed photos of the scene close by or from a distance, even taking close-up photos. The CCP argued that the long distance lens that was able to take a panoramic view of the square was a monitor on top of the Great Hall of the People. There is a indeed a monitor there, but the lens was fixed to catch what was occurring in the “self-immolation.” There are other questionable aspects in the reporting of what would ordinarily be a chaotic and challenging event to document, with the slogans of the self-immolators clearly recorded, carefully staged close-ups, and even the image of the child yelling out for her mother was carefully framed.
Other unusual details pointing to a fabrication include the following: After the “self-immolation,” the little girl Liu Siying (Liu Chunling’s daughter), who was supposed to have had a tracheotomy after being badly burned, was able to be interviewed only four days later and was even able to sing; the plastic Sprite bottle that was said to contain gasoline remained intact between “self-immolator” Wang Jindong’s legs after the fire; hair is very inflammable, yet Wang Jindong’s hair appeared undamaged after the fire; the policeman holding a fire blanket behind Wang Jindong waited until Wang finished shouting slogans before he put the blanket over his head. These scenarios, inconsistent with a real-life situation, clearly suggest that the whole event was staged.
Another mother and daughter pair who participated in the “self-immolation” is Chen Guo and her mother. Chen Guo’s classmate at the Central Conservatory of Music, Wang Bo, revealed that Chen Guo used to practice Falun Gong, but gave up the practice later on. She later went to Kaifeng to study. She was not a Falun Gong practitioner. Wang Bo and her family suffered much persecution for revealing the facts.
The initial CCTV broadcast of the “self-immolation” incident claimed that there were CNN reporters at the scene, and claimed that it was CNN that shot all the footage. But CNN immediately issued a written statement denying that the footage was from CNN.
After the inconsistencies were exposed one by one, the live broadcast of the CCP's “trial” and sentencing of the participants in mid-August 2001 no longer contained the questionable footage challenged by the outside world. The scene showing Liu Chunling being hit on the head by a hard object before she fell down was also no longer aired.
At the beginning of 2002, reporter Li Yuqiang, who participated in “reporting” the “self-immolation” from the beginning and who was responsible for fabricating other rumors to frame Falun Gong, held a so-called “forum” with Falun Gong practitioners detained at the Hebei Legal Education Training Center (actually a brainwashing center and illegal prison to persecute Falun Gong practitioners). When Falun Gong practitioners challenged her about the loopholes in the “self-immolation” story, especially the intact plastic Sprite bottle and Wang Jindong’s hair after the fire, Li Yuqiang admitted that they had placed the Sprite bottle in Wang’s lap, and that the image was a later make-up shot.
On November 8, 2003, the NTDTV film “False Fire” that examines and analyzes the suspicious points of the “self-immolation” incident on Tiananmen Square won an honorable mention at the 51st Columbia International Film Festival.
The CCP has attempted to tarnish Falun Gong by orchestrating extreme incidents like the self-immolation. However, in the face of the facts, more and more people have understood the beauty of Falun Dafa and have seen through the CCP’s lies.
Falun Gong practitioners will continue to resist the persecution and clarify the facts to people in a peaceful and rational manner until the persecution ends.