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The Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident was an event which took place in Tiananmen Square on the eve of Chinese new year, January 23, 2001 when 7 people apparently attempted to set themselves on fire. Footage was broadcast nationally in the People's Republic of China by China Central Television (CCTV). Western news organizations disseminated the story as given by the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, without the possibility of verifying it independently, amidst tight state censorship.

According to Time magazine, the Government's media war against Falun Gong gained significant traction following the act; the six-month campaign successfully portrayed Falun Gong as an "evil cult" which could unhinge its followers. By repeatedly broadcasting images of a girl’s burning body and interviews with the others saying they believed self-immolation would lead them to paradise, many Chinese were convinced that Falun Gong was evil. CNN comments that the campaign is probably the government's first effort to gain public support for the crackdown of Falun Gong, and is "reminiscent of communist political movements -- from the ..Korean War to the ..Cultural Revolution".

The state-owned broadcaster claimed the self-immolators as Falun Gong practitioners. Falun Gong practitioners strongly denied that the immolators could have been practitioners and stated that the events were staged by the CCP to frame Falun Gong and gain traction for its persecution of Falun Gong. Falun Gong in New York emphatically denied that these people could have been practitioners,pointing out that the teachings explicitly forbid suicide and killing.On the very same day of the incident, Falun Dafa Information Center issued a report stating:

"The Xinhua News Agency’s report that five members of the Falun Gong meditation group set themselves on fire Tuesday in China's Tiananmen Square is yet another attempt by the PRC regime to defame the practice of Falun Gong. We are calling on the PRC regime to allow the world media and international human rights groups to investigate this case to clarify the facts."

Falun Gong and some third-party commentators point to apparent inconsistencies in the government's version of events, and state that the incident was staged in order to turn public opinion against the practice and build support for the persecution by turning public opinion against Falun Gong. In an analysis named False Fire NTDTV points out several discrepancies in the version presented by the CCP. Later reports including ones by Washington Post reporter Pan Philip and National Review also point out several holes in the self immolation story broadcast by Xinhua News Agency.

Background

From April 25, 1999 to July, 1999 about 300 Falun Gong demonstrations were held around the country. On July 22 of the same year, a decision was made by the Chinese Government to ban the group. By August, state controlled newspapers began running lengthy exposés about Falun Gong. In Shanghai, a petition against the group began circulating on February 13 yielding 100,000 signatures in 10 days. According to Danny Schechter, these government organised petitions lack credibility, and are attempts by the Party to "thwart attacks on its human rights record."

By the end of 1999, human rights organizations and international media had reported on torture claims and deaths of Falun Gong adherents in police custody. Close to 35,000 Falun Gong practitioners had been arrested in Beijing. Tiananmen Square became one of the prime locations where the practitioners were expected to demonstrate routinely. On January 1, 2001, another 700 Falun Gong demonstrators were arrested in the square. The size of protests had dwindled to zero due to the Government crackdown, despite the leadership calling to step up peaceful demonstrations "especially in Tiananmen Square" according to a 'Time' article.

Amnesty International called on the Chinese government to stop "...mass arbitrary detentions, unfair trials and other human rights violations resulting from the crackdown on the Falun Gong..." in March 2000 Amnesty expressed concern that Falun Gong practitioners had been "...tortured or subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in detention." Another bulletin in December 2000 reported testimonies of torture, detention and ill-treatment, some ending in death, and condemned the authorities' "callous disregard for the lives of people detained solely for their peaceful activities."

Prior to the event, many Chinese had felt that Falun Gong posed no real threat, and that the crackdown had gone too far. A paper from Falun Gong front organization World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) suggests that Jiang Zemin considered that the public was not responding as desired a year after initiating the crackdown: CCP had failed to "annihilate Falun Gong within three months", the persecution had met with international condemnation, as well as resistance from highly ranked Party officials.

On January 1, 2001, Li Hongzhi published an article called "Beyond the Limits of Forbearance" which which a Time article speculates, may have appealed some radical practitioners. In the article, Li wrote that persecution of the Fa by "evil" (i.e. the Chinese authorities) could no longer be tolerated: "In personal cultivation, there is usually no going beyond the limits of Forbearance.... Completely eliminating the evil is for Fa-rectification, and not a matter of personal cultivation." Falun Gong emphasizes that this merely means non-violent forms of exposing and resisting the persecution.

The act

On January 23, 2001 (Chinese New Year's eve) a group of men and women apparently attempted to set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square, five succeeded at ignition. The follwing table provides a list of 'self-immolators' and their details as broadcast by the Xinhua news agency.

A man sat down on the pavement northeast of the Monument to the People's Heroes at the center of the square, poured gasoline on his clothes and set himself on fire. Moments later four more people set themselves alight. A CNN camera crew were on hand to record the event. CNN producer Lisa Weaver said she could "smell burning flesh as the van slowly passed." As they were taping, military police stepped in, detained the crew, and confiscated their tapes. Nearby police with fire-extinguishers ran to the victims and put out the flames within the space of a minute.

The Chinese authorities claimed that the seven people who attempted suicide were all from Kaifeng in Henan Province. Six of them reportedly took the train to Beijing on January 16, meeting Chen Guo there. State-run media reports that they agreed to light themselves in different parts of the square at 2:30 pm; they smuggled gasoline into the square using plastic Sprite bottles; each had been armed with two lighters in case one would fail. Two died and three were severely disfigured by the act.

Reports and Analysis of the Events

False Fire

 by New Tang Dynasty Television

State owned Xinhua claimed that the self-immolators were "avid practitioners", allegedly having taken up the practice between 1995 and 1997. Xinhua also claimed that during the week preceding the event, they fantasised about "how wonderful it would be to enter heaven".

Many Western news organizations published the same story and in much the same way as Xinhua, as there were no sources to verify facts independently, given the tight state censorship. Nevertheless, The Guardian reported that some observers believed it was possible that the victims attempted suicide in desperation and confusion about Mr Li's radical "new scripture". Time considered "implausible" that the act was set up by the Government, stating that Falun Gong had been caught off-guard by the act, and the leadership's damage control after the immolations proved to be inadequate. Schechter, however, doubted Falun Gong would deny being involved in the incident if it was a genuine protest. In the National Review, the Laogai Research Foundation suggested that it was "hardly a far-fetched hypothesis" that the government allowed or staged the incident to discredit Falun Gong, as the government vowed to crush Falun Gong before the eightieth anniversary celebrations of the Communist Party in July. The article concluded that while the "PRC's propaganda coup" against Falun Gong is within the context of popular understandings of other immolations in recent Asian history, "...this situation is not clear", and for the Communists, this was just "another lie."

A video programme of the incident, False Fire, produced by Falun Gong related media outlet New Tang Dynasty Television, claimed a number of inconsistencies in the state's version of events (see right insert), and also stated that prior to January 23, 2001, there had been no incidents of self-immolation among Falun Gong practitioners in the world. WOIPFG described the reporting of the incident as a major tool in the "regime’s global campaign to vilify Falun Gong practitioners to the Chinese people", and an "enormous fabrication".

The Washington Post questioned why the Chinese regime happened to have a camera crew in place to film the incident. "The close-up shots shown on Chinese television appear to have been taken without any interference from police. In some, the camera is clearly behind police barricades and positioned directly above the apparent sect members. In addition, footage from overhead surveillance cameras in Tiananmen Square appears to show a man using a small handheld video camera to film the scene, not a large TV news camera."

Falun Gong expressed its concern of western media's giving Xinhua's reports so much credibility and airtime, given that Xinhua openly admits it "disseminate propaganda for the Chinese regime." Falun Gong further stated that "much remains unclear and unknown about the circumstances surrounding the incident", including what took place in the week between the incident and when the "fully engineered news articles and television programs" were released. International Educational Development (IED), a human rights NGO, condemned the government's "terrorism against Falun Gong", and said it had discovered that the act had in fact been staged.

One western diplomat commented that the public changed from sympathising with Falun Gong to siding with the Government after the event, popular consensus seemingly shifted by human interest stories and accounts of rehabilitation efforts of former practitioners. WOIPFG believed that hostility toward Falun Gong from the general public escalated, the campaign "clearly intensified," "hate crimes" targeting Falun Gong increased. It further alleged the death toll during police arrests or in prisons, labor camps and "brainwashing centers" all sharply increased.

The Age described the immolation incident as the Communist Party's main piece of evidence in its campaign to portray Falun Gong as "dangerous and predatory," similar to Aum Shinrikyo or Jim Jones' cult in Guyana. It believes that this attempt has "fallen flat," and the "ready availability of fire-extinguishers and official TV teams and the lack of verification about the victims" raises questions about Falun Gong involvement, or whether the incident was staged.

Falun Gong denied any practitioners could have been involved in the incident, as "...The teachings of Falun Gong prohibit any form of killing. Mr. Li Hongzhi... has explicitly stated that suicide is a sin." It accused the PRC Government of attempting to discredit the practice of Falun Gong. Falun Gong related commentators also pointed out that the main participants' account of the incident and other aspects of the participants' behaviour were inconsistent with the teachings of Falun Dafa. CNN had reported that four of the victims were seen in flames, with their hands held "in a classic Falun Gong meditation pose", causing Falun Gong to file a complaint to CNN.

Time reported one Beijing arm of Falun Gong strongly suggested the immolators were practitioners, yet the New York head office categorically stated "This so-called suicide attempt on Tiananmen Square has nothing to do with Falun Gong practitioners..." Time suggested that this "lack of solidarity" was contributing to the sense of desperation of Mainland Chinese practitioners who may feel "out of touch" with the exiled leadership. The Guardian commented that Li had confused his supporters in his New Year message that forbearance did not mean tolerating evil, and that "various measures at different levels can be used to stop it and eradicate it". Days later, Falun Gong in New York was forced to admit "certain disciples had some extreme interpretations we are going to resort to violence". Falun Gong clarified that Mr Li meant it was time to "bring the truth to light" about China's atrocities.

The New York Times stated that conflicting claims were difficult to assess "ith propaganda streaming in from seemingly opposite ends of the universe... especially since the remaining Falun Gong practitioners have been driven underground." It also noted one of the victims was able to "fluidly perform" Falun Gong's signature slow-motion exercises in front of Western media.

The 'victims'

According to the Hong Kong NGO Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, all of the victims, except 12-year-old Liu Siying, had previously protested for Falun Gong in Tiananmen Square. Schechter noted that a CNN producer at the scene, "standing just fifty feet away" said she did not see any children. He doubted that the child, a tracheotomy patient, would have been able to "speak to the Chinese media so soon after the tragedy."

After denying press access to the victims for a year after the incident, the Government "suddenly" granted foreign press interviews in the presence of state officials in April 2002. When asked why they set themselves on fire, Hao Huijun said that she had realised the futility of writing letters and demonstrating by waving banners, "so finally, we decided...to make a big event to show our will to the world.... We wanted to show the government that Falun Gong was good."

Liu Chunling

Xinhua reported that Huo Xiuzhen, Liu Chunling's adoptive mother, spoke of her daughter's "obsession with Falun Gong", her "worshipping of Li Hongzhi", and how she would teach her daughter to practice Falun Gong. Liu's neighbours, when interviewed by the International Herald Tribune, stated that she was not a native of Kaicheng, was deeply troubled, and beat her mother and daughter. None of the interviewed had ever seen her practice Falun Gong. Falun Gong disputes that Liu was a practitioner because she "...was witnessed beating her stepmother and child... is not according to a Falun Gong practitioner's standard." Specifically, Zhuan Falun teach Compassion and Endurance, and particularly state that practitioners should not lose their temper in disciplining children.

Commenting on a footage of the video broadcast by Xinhua made available in slow motion by Falun Gong, Charles A. Radin of the Boston Globe agrees that Liu may have been "bludgeoned by a man in a military overcoat."

Wang Jindong

Wang Jindong, serving a 15 year sentence in Henan Provincial Prison, denied that he had been bribed by the government to stage the incident, and said he "felt humiliated because of my stupidity and fanatical ideas."

However, WOIPFG stated that the Speech Processing Laboratory at National Taiwan University analysed the broadcasts, and claimed that the first person named as Wang Jindong who appeared on CCTV was not the same person who appeared the second and third times.

Falun Gong also claims conflicting accounts between state media reports on the immolation--about when Wang was supposed to have started practicing Falun Gong, and whether he was standing or sitting when he shouted.

Aftermath

Government's actions

Following the incident, Tiananmen Square was shut down. Seven days after the event, China Central TV aired their footage of five people in flames, said to be taken by nearby surveillance cameras.

The government immediately used the twelve-year-old Liu Siying as an example that Falun Gong was harmful to children. After having had a tracheotomy, according to Government sources, she was able to speak through "approved media outlets", saying that her own mother told her to set herself on fire to reach the "heavenly golden kingdom". The media parade incited 8 million students to join the "Anti-Cult action by the Youth Civilised Communities Across the Nation". Posters, leaflets, videos and lectures began in the class rooms nation wide about the supposed detrimental effects of the practice. Regular anti-Falun Gong classes were scheduled in schools on the orders of the authorities, with 12 million children submitting writings disapproving of the practice.

Within a month, authorities issued a glossy pamphlet entitled The Whole Story of the Self Immolation Incident Created by Falun Gong Addicts in Tiananmen Square featuring color photographs of charred bodies. The State Council's "Office for the Prevention and Handling of Evil Cults", declared after the event that it was now ready to form a united front with the global anti-cult struggle. The IHT reported state controlled media attacked Falun Gong and Li Hongzhi morning and night, on a daily basis. Meetings took place in factories, offices and universities; schools were ordered to "educate" pupils about Falun Gong. The Government announced that religious leaders from across the country had delivered denunciations. In Kaifeng, the post office issued an anti-Falun Gong postmark, and 10,000 people signed a petition denouncing the group.

By March 2001, before the National People's Congress, Premier Zhu Rongji and former Premier Li Peng made it clear that the elimination of the group was top priority. An anti-cult exhibition targeting Falun Gong was held in July 2001 at the China People's Revolution Military Museum in Beijing; Beijing newspapers have run exhibits of former practitioners thanking the Communist Party of China for rescuing them; in the form of a cartoon of Li Hongzhi covered in swastikas, the Chinese government compared Li to Adolf Hitler.

According to Xinhua, Liu Yunfang was sentenced to life imprisonment, Wang Jindong received a fifteen-year sentence, and a Beijing resident 'who provided them lodging and helped in the preparation' received a seven-year sentence.

See also

• Tiananmen Square protests of 1989

References

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5. "The Issue of Killing" from Zhuan Falun, Falun Dafa
6. ^ Elizabeth J. Selden, Mark Perry. Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance. Routledge, 2003. ISBN 041530170X
7. Asia Source Interview: An Interview with Danny Schechter, Director of Falun Gong's Challenge to China
8. ^ Amnesty International, PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA: The crackdown on Falun Gong and other so-called heretical organizations, 23 March 2000, accessed 11 September 2007
9. http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2001/international-reporting/works/falungong2.html Defiant Falun Dafa Members Converge on Tiananmen
10. Amnesty International, China: Falun Gong deaths in custody continue to rise as crackdown worsens, accessed September 11 2007
11. ^ World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, Investigation Reports on the Persecution of Falun Gong: Volume 1, 2003-2004, p X
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13. Randall P. Peerenboom, Asian Discourses of Rule of Law: Theories and Implementation of Rule of Law in Twelve Asian countries, France the US, 2004. ISBN 0415326125
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17. RESPONSES TO INFORMATION REQUESTS "CHN43081.E" Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. Accessed: 2007-02-06
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• Falun Gong
• 2001 in China
• Mainland China
• History of Beijing
• Political repression in the People's Republic of China
• Propaganda in the People's Republic of China