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The '''Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident''' took place in ], Beijing, on ] ]. News publicized, by ] (CCTV), within hours of the incident, in which five people were reported to have set themselves on fire, claimed the immolators were ] practitioners.<ref name="Sunderland">Judith Sunderland. From the Household to the Factory: China's campaign against Falungong. Human Rights Watch, 2002. ISBN 1564322696</ref> The '''Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident''' was an event which took place in ] on the eve of ], 23 January 2001 when seven people attempted to set themselves on fire. One died there, another in hospital after a few weeks. Footage was broadcast nationally in the People's Republic of China by ] (CCTV). Western news organizations disseminated the story as given by the official Chinese news agency, '']'', without the possibility of verifying it independently, given the tight ] exercised by the Chinese authorities.


According to '']'', the Government's media war against ] gained significant traction following the act; the six-month campaign successfully portrayed Falun Gong as an "evil cult" which could unhinge its followers.<ref name=breakingpoint/> 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 ] were convinced that Falun Gong was evil.<ref name=chrandra>Chrandra D. Smith, , October 2004, retrieved 8 July 2006</ref> 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 ..] to the ..]".<ref name=tense/>
Falun Gong emphatically denied the people involved could have been practitioners stating that the teachings explicitly forbid all forms of killing, including suicide.<ref name="TheIssueOfKilling"> from ], ]</ref> In a press statement, issued on the same day of the incident, the ] Information Center characterized the event as "another attempt by the PRC regime to defame the practice of Falun Gong" and called on China "to allow the world media and international human rights groups to investigate this case to clarify the facts."<ref name="Press Statement dated January 23, 2001 ">{{cite news|url=http://www.clearwisdom.net/eng/2001/jan/23/vsf012301_3.html|title=Press Statement Regarding Tiananmen Suicide|publisher=Falun Dafa Information Center|date=January 23, 2001|accessdate=January 23, 2009}}</ref> Falun Gong and third-party commentators, <!-- Note to editor: Virtually all third party analysts including ownby, Ian Johnson, and schechter consider it most likely that the incident was entirely staged. Schechter states that "china's charges are unsubstantiated by outside parties"-->pointing to discrepancies in the government's version of events, assert the incident was staged in order to turn public opinion against the practice and build support for the ongoing ].<ref name="FalseFire"/><ref name="Sunderland" />

According to ], the government's media war against ] gained significant traction following the act.<ref name=breakingpoint>Matthew Gornet, , ], June 25, 2001</ref><ref name=pomfret>John Pomfret and Philip Pan, Washington Post, 5 Aug 2001 at A1, , October 2004, retrieved July 8, 2006</ref> ] commented that the campaign is probably the government's first effort to gain public support for the persecution of Falun Gong, and is reminiscent of its past political movements such as the ] and the ].<ref name=tense/>


The state-owned broadcaster claimed the ]s as Falun Gong practitioners.<ref name="Sunderland">Judith Sunderland. From the Household to the Factory: China's campaign against Falungong. Human Rights Watch, 2002. ISBN 1564322696</ref> ''Time'' said that it was possible for misguided practitioners to have taken it upon themselves to demonstrate in this manner, handing a propaganda opportunity to the Chinese authorities.<ref name=breakingpoint/> Falun Gong in New York emphatically denies that these people could have been practitioners on grounds that the teachings explicitly forbid suicide and killing.<ref name="TheIssueOfKilling"> from ], ]</ref> Falun Gong and some third-party commentators point to apparent inconsistencies in the government's version of events, and claim that the incident was staged in order to turn public opinion against the practice<ref name=chrandra/> and build support for its ].<ref name="Sunderland" />


==Background== ==Background==
{{main|Persecution of Falun Gong}} {{main|Persecution of Falun Gong}}
From 25 April 1999 to July, 1999 about 300 Falun Gong demonstrations were held around the country. On 22 July of the same year, a decision was made by the authorities to officially crack down on the group.<ref name="Perry">Elizabeth J. Selden, Mark Perry. Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance. Routledge, 2003. ISBN 041530170X</ref> By August, state controlled newspapers began running lengthy ] about Falun Gong. In Shanghai, a ] against the group began circulating on 13 February yielding 100,000 signatures in 10 days.<ref name="Sunderland"/> According to ], these government organized petitions lack credibility, and are attempts by the Party to "thwart attacks on its human rights record."<ref name="Schecter2001">Asia Source Interview: </ref>
Since 1999, the Chinese government has conducted a widespread persecution of Falun Gong. Human Rights organizations including ] and ] have raised acute concerns over reports of torture and ill-treatment of practitioners in China and have also urged the UN and international governments to intervene to bring an end to the persecution<ref name=HRW1>, Human Rights Watch</ref><ref name=AI2000>. The Amnesty International</ref> <ref>Human Rights Watch, </ref><ref name="AI2000">Amnesty International, , 23 March 2000, accessed 11 September 2007</ref> David Ownby notes that human rights organizations "have unanimously condemned China's brutal campaign against the Falungong, and many governments around the world, including Canada's, have expressed their concern." <ref name=KMRR> </ref>


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.<ref name="AI2000">Amnesty International, , 23 March 2000, accessed 11 September 2007</ref> 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.<ref>http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2001/international-reporting/works/falungong2.html Defiant Falun Dafa Members Converge on Tiananmen</ref> On 1 January 2001 another 700 Falun Gong demonstrators were arrested in the square.<ref name="Perry" /> The size of protests had dwindled to zero due to the Government crackdown, despite the leadership calling to step up demonstrations "especially in Tiananmen Square" according to ''Time''; the same article also stated that Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi had urged followers to immobilize the police and other "evil scoundrels" with supernatural powers.<ref name=breakingpoint>Matthew Gornet, , ], 25 June 2001</ref>
Amnesty International states that despite the persecution, many Falun Gong practitioners continued to hold exercise sessions in public, usually as a form of silent protest against the persecution and imprisonment of practitioners. Some of these silent protests were held outside important seats of government or in places with political significance such as Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Amnesty points out that these were attended by large numbers of people, including significant numbers of elderly people and women, and that they have been entirely peaceful.<ref name=Amnesty1>, The Amnesty International</ref>. The government declared these sessions to be "illegal assemblies" and the practitioners were put under detention or sent to forced labor.<ref name="HRW1"/> Amnesty states that among the thousands detained were ordinary workers, farmers, teachers and academics, university students, publishers, accountants, police officers , engineers, people from a variety of other professions and government officials <ref name=Amnesty1/> According to some sources over 35,000 Falun Gong practitioners had been arrested for peaceful protests in ] alone.<ref>Ian Johnson, , 25 April 2000, ] Page A21</ref>. In March, 2000 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...";<ref name="AI2000"/> Amnesty expressed acute concern that Falun Gong practitioners had been "...tortured or subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in detention."<ref name="AI2000" /> Another bulletin in December 2000 cited reports 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."<ref name="AIdec2000">Amnesty International, , accessed September 11 2007</ref>


Prior to the event, many Chinese had felt that Falun Gong posed no real threat, and that the crackdown had gone too far.<ref name=breakingpoint/> 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: China 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.<ref name="WOIPFGpaper">World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, ''Investigation Reports on the Persecution of Falun Gong: Volume 1'', 2003-2004, p X</ref>
Human-rights organizations state that an intense propaganda campaign has been used by the CCP to turn public opinion against Falun Gong<ref name="unhchr"> Statement by United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, 53rd session, 14 August 2001</ref><ref name="AI2000"/>. Reports by ] and ] state:


On 1 January 2001, Li Hongzhi published an article called "''Beyond the Limits of Forbearance''" which ''Time'' believed appealed to more radical practitioners.<ref name=breakingpoint/> Therein, 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."<ref name=beyondthelimits>], , Clearwisdom, retrieved 14 September 2007</ref> Falun Gong later said this meant non-violent forms of exposing and resisting the persecution.
:"According to Amnesty International, the Chinese Government adopted three strategies to crush Falun Gong: violence against practitioners who refuse to renounce their beliefs; "brainwashing" to force all known practitioners to abandon Falun Gong and renounce it, and a media campaign to turn public opinion against Falun Gong. Local governments were authorized to implement Beijing's orders... Implementation meant, in part, staged attempts to demonstrate to China's population that practitioners committed suicide by self-immolation... Over time this campaign had the desired effect and many, if not most, Chinese nationals came to accept the Communist Party view about Falun Gong... This incitement to hatred is most acute in China"<ref name="kilgourmatas"> Bloody Harvest: Kilgour Matas Report on Allegation of Organ Harvesting from Falun Gong Practitioners in China, 14 August 2001</ref><ref name=wposttorture>John Pomfret and Philip P. Pan, "Torture is Breaking Falun Gong", Washington Post, 5 August 2001.</ref><ref name="kilgourmatas"> Bloody Harvest: Kilgour Matas Report on Allegation of Organ Harvesting from Falun Gong Practitioners in China, 14 August 2001</ref>


==The incident==
According to TIME, prior to the event, many Chinese had felt that Falun Gong posed no threat, and that the persecution had gone too far, but the purported self-immolation marked a turning point in its anti-Falun Gong campaign.<ref name=breakingpoint/> A paper from Falun Gong human rights group ''World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong'' (''WOIPFG'') suggests that ] considered that the public was not responding as desired a year after initiating the crackdown: China 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.<ref name="WOIPFGpaper">World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, ''Investigation Reports on the Persecution of Falun Gong: Volume 1'', 2003-2004, p X</ref> Amnesty International states that the Chinese government's "propaganda campaign capitalised on an incident on 23 January 2001 when five alleged practitioners, including a 12 year-old girl and her mother, set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square."
On 23 January 2001 (]'s eve) a group of men and women attempted to set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square,<ref name="Sunderland" /> five succeeded at ignition.<ref name="Peerenboom">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</ref><ref name="Sunderland" />


{|class="wikitable"
==Reports and analysis==
! width=10% | Romanized name
===The incident===
! width=5% | Chinese name
! width=10% | Relations
! width=5% | Ignited
! width=20% | Description
! width=20% | Outcome
|-
| Wang Jin-dong || 王進東 || || yes || Male || Hospitalized; 15 years' imprisonment
|-
| Liu Chun-ling || 劉春玲 || Mother of Si-ying || yes || Female ||Died on the spot
|-
| Liu Si-ying || 劉思影 || Daughter of Chun-ling || yes || 12 year old girl || Died weeks later after the event
|-
| Chen Guo || 陳果 || Daughter of Hao Hui-jun || yes|| 19 year old college student, Female || Treated at Beijing Jishuitan Hospital; severely disfigured
|-
| Hao Hui-jun || 郝惠君 || Mother of Chen Guo || yes || Female || Hospitalized; severely disfigured
|-
| Liu Bao-rong || 劉葆榮 || || no || Male || Life sentence
|-
| Liu Yun-fang || 劉雲芳 || || no || Male || Failed to ignite gasoline
|-
</table>


On ] ] (]'s eve) a group of men and women attempted to set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square,<ref name="Sunderland" /> five succeeded at ignition.<ref name="Peerenboom">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</ref><ref name="Sunderland" /> A man sat down on the pavement northeast of the ] at the center of the square, poured gasoline on his clothes and set himself on fire. Moments later four more people set themselves alight. CNN was in Tiananmen Square during the incident and reported the alleged suicides. <ref name=tense>Staff and wire reports, , CNN, January 24, 2001, accessed 2007-02-09</ref> As they were taping, military police stepped in, detained the crew, and confiscated their tapes. Danny Schecter notes that video tapes confiscated from CNN are never aired. <ref name=mediachannel>Danny Schechter, , Mediachannel, February 22, 2001</ref> Police with fire-extinguishers put out the flames, reportedly within the space of a minute. A man sat down on the pavement northeast of the ] 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."<ref name=tense>Staff and wire reports, , CNN, 24 January 2001, accessed 9 February 2007</ref> 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.<ref name=mediachannel>Danny Schechter, , Mediachannel, 22 February 2001</ref>


The Chinese authorities claimed that the seven people who attempted suicide were all from ] in ] Province. Six of them reportedly took the train to Beijing on 16 January, 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 soda bottles; each had been armed with two lighters in case one would fail. <ref name=xinhua1>Xinhua story, , China.org.cn, 31 January 2001, accessed 1 August 2007</ref> Two died and three were severely disfigured by the act.
Seven days later, China's official TV aired the footage of five people engulfed in flames. The footage, the state-controlled news claimed, was taken by nearby surveillance cameras.<ref name=schechter1>Falun Gong's Challenge to China - A report by Danny Schechter</ref> In later reports which appeared in state run media, the number of self-immolators rose from five to seven – two of whom apparently had failed to ignite themselves. One of the self-immolators, Liu Chun-ling reportedly died on the scene. A few months later, state media announced the death of Liu Si-ying, who, according to state-news, had been hospitalized with severe burns following the incident. The other three were reported to have been "severely disfigured". Beijing denied requests from western journalists to interview Liu Siying and the three other survivors; only China Central Television and the official New China News Agency were permitted to speak to their relatives or their colleagues. <ref name=schechter1/>


==Reporting and analysis==
===Reports===
State-owned ] claimed the self-immolators were practitioners of Falun Gong, allegedly having taken up the practice between 1995 and 1997. Initially, some western news organizations reported the Xinhua version that the immolators were practitioners, as, according to ], there were no sources to verify facts independently given the tight state censorship.<ref name=mediachannel /> 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."<ref name="mhpressstate2001">Press Statement, , Falun Gong, February 1, 2001, Retrieved on September 11, 2007</ref>


{| class="toccolours" style="float: right; margin-left: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:25em; max-width: 35%;" cellspacing="5"
On the very same day of the incident, Falun Gong in New York issued a press statement stating that the incident was "yet another attempt by the PRC regime to defame the practice of Falun Gong" and called for the "PRC regime to allow the world media and international human rights groups to investigate this case to clarify the facts."<ref name="Press Statement dated January 23, 2001 "/> Falun Gong says that practitioners could not have been involved in the incident, pointing out "...The teachings of Falun Gong prohibit any form of killing. Mr. Li Hongzhi... has explicitly stated that suicide is a sin." Falun Gong sources accused the ] of attempting to discredit the practice of Falun Gong.<ref name="Press Statement dated January 23, 2001 "/> 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.<ref>, World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, August 2003</ref>
| style="text-align: left;" |


'''''False Fire'''''</br>
Initially, the '']'' 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." The reporter opined that one of the victims was able to "fluidly perform" Falun Gong's signature slow-motion exercises in front of Western media.<ref>Elisabeth Rosenthal, "", ], 5 April 2002.</ref> 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.<ref name="gittings"/> Schecter notes that among Falun Gong practitioners, a primary reason for suspicion that the event was staged is that the people shown in the footage are not conducting the exercises properly.<ref name=schechter1/> One western diplomat commented that the public changed from sympathising with Falun Gong to siding with the Government after the event; "human interest" stories and accounts of "rehabilitation" efforts of former practitioners shifted popular consensus.<ref name=ansfield>Jonathan Ansfield, ], , ], July 23, 2001</ref>
''by ]''

The programme attempted to deconstruct the event, and challenged several apparent inconsistencies in the Chinese Government's version of the story: <ref>, World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFalun Gong), August 2003. Accessed: 6 February 2007</ref><ref> Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. Accessed: 6 February 2007</ref>
According to an initial Falun Gong press statement, "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.<ref name="mhpressstate2001"/> Schechter doubted Falun Gong would deny being involved in the incident if it was a genuine protest.<ref name="Schechter2001">Danny Schechter, ''Falun Gong's Challenge to China'', Akashic Books, New York, 2001, pp 20-23</ref> <!--note that Ownby in his book says this work is “excellent” and more --> Anthropologist Noah Porter opines that even if the participants considered themselves to be practitioners, they are no more representative of Falun Gong than Christianity is represented by people "who shoot and bomb abortion clinics."<ref name="Porter">Noah Porter (Masters thesis for the University of South Florida), ''''. 2003. p 105</ref> In the '']'', the ] 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 the practice before the eightieth anniversary celebrations of the Communist Party in July. The article concluded that the "PRC's propaganda coup" against Falun Gong relies upon popular understandings of other immolations in recent Asian history such as the ]. The foundation states that "...this situation is not clear", and for the Communists, this was just "another lie."<ref name=noonan>Ann Noonan in the '']'', , accessed 21/5/08</ref>
*The hair and bottle of gasoline at the feet of the alleged self immolator is intact, although this should have caught fire first.

*Police, not normally known to carry fire extinguishers on duty, appeared to have pieces of fire-fighting equipment on hand on the day of the self-immolations.
The Falun Gong human-rights group WOIPFG saw the incident as a major tool in the government's "global campaign to vilify Falun Gong practitioners to the Chinese people..."<ref name="WOIPFGpdf" /><ref name=woipfghighlights>WOIPFG, '''', accessed October 4, 2007.</ref> WOIPFG believed that hostility toward Falun Gong from the general public in China escalated, the campaign "clearly intensified," and that "hate crimes" targeting Falun Gong increased.<ref name="WOIPFGpaper" /> It further alleged the death toll during police arrests or in prisons, labor camps and "brainwashing centers" all sharply increased.<ref name="WOIPFGpdf">World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, , accessed 16 September, 2007</ref>
*Liu Chunling, appears to be hit on the head by a blunt object as police attempt to put out the fire. The programme argues that Liu died from a severe blow to the head.

Danny Schechter notes that CCP's claims were unsubstantiated by outside parties.<ref name=schechter1/>

===Analysis===
<!-- Deleted image removed: ] -->
<div class="toccolours" style="float: right; margin-left: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em; font-size: 85%; background:#fffffa; color:black; width:25em; max-width: 35%; padding: 1em 1.5em 1.5em">

'''Discrepancies pointed out by NTDTV's ''False Fire''<ref name="FalseFire"/>'''

]
<br/>
''False Fire'', a ] attempt to deconstruct the event<ref>Susan V. Lawrence, "Falun Gong Adds Media Weapons In Struggle With China's Rulers", Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition), April 14, 2004. pg. B.2I </ref> points out several inconsistencies in the Chinese Government's version of the story, including:<ref name="upholdjustice.org">, World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFalun Gong), August 2003. Accessed: 2007-02-06</ref><ref name="irb-cisr.gc.ca"> Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. Accessed: 2007-02-06</ref>

*Liu Chunling, the only self-immolator who died on the spot appears to fall from being bludgeoned on the head by a man in military suit. The programme argues that Liu could have died from a severe blow to the head.
*The self immolators appear to be wearing several layers of, possibly fire-protective, clothing and masks. The hair and bottle of gasoline at the feet of an alleged self-immolator is intact, although this should have caught fire first.
*Police, who normally are not known to carry fire extinguishers on duty, appeared to have used almost 25 pieces of fire-fighting equipment on hand on the day of the self-immolations. The nearest building is 10 minutes away and footage shows that only two police vehicles were at the scene. The flames were put out in less than a minute's time.
*The camera of the CCTV footage zooms in on the scene as it unfolds; surveillance cameras in Tiananmen Square are usually fixed. *The camera of the CCTV footage zooms in on the scene as it unfolds; surveillance cameras in Tiananmen Square are usually fixed.
*Wang Jindong shouts comments that do not form part of Falun Dafa teachings; his posture, including hand position and sitting position, does not reflect the full or half lotus position required in Falun Dafa exercises. *Wang Jindong shouts comments that do not form part of Falun Dafa teachings; his sitting position also does not reflect the full or half lotus position as in the Falun Dafa teachings.
*The hospital treatment of the victims, as recorded by Chinese state media, is inconsistent with proper care of severe burn victims: for instance, patients were not kept in sterile rooms. *The hospital treatment of the victims, as recorded by Chinese state media, is inconsistent with proper care of severe burn victims: for instance, patients were not kept in sterile rooms
*The girl who allegedly underwent a tracheotomy appeared to be able to speak and sing clearly mere days after the surgery. *The girl who allegedly underwent a tracheotomy appeared to be able to speak and sing clearly mere days after the surgery
|}
</div>


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".<ref name=xinhua1/>
Many commentators, including Danny Schechter, ], and Ian Johnson have pointed out discrepancies in the Chinese government's version of the events.<ref name=schechter1/> Falun Gong related sources have also pointed out several discrepancies in the state broadcast version of the events,<ref name=schechter1/> Reporters Sans Frontiers and Danny Schechter note that the a few days before the incident, the chinese authorities and media had launched a new campaign against Falun Gong.<ref name=schechter1/> <ref name=RSF> </ref>


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.<ref name=mediachannel/> Nevertheless, '']'' reported<ref name="gittings">, ], 29 January 2001</ref> that some observers believed it was possible that the victims attempted suicide in desperation and confusion about Mr Li's radical "new scripture".<ref name=beyondthelimits/> '']'' 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.<ref name=breakingpoint/> Schechter, however, doubted Falun Gong would deny being involved in the incident if it was a genuine protest.<ref name="Schechter2001">Danny Schechter, ''Falun Gong's Challenge to China'', Akashic Books, New York, 2001, pp 20-23</ref> <!-- I am commenting this in for now: Anthropologist Noah Porter opines that even if the participants considered themselves to be practitioners, they are no more representative of Falun Gong than Christianity is represented by people "who shoot and bomb abortion clinics."<ref name="Porter">Noah Porter (Masters thesis for the University of South Florida), ''Falun Gong in the United States: An Ethnographic Study''. . 2003. p 105</ref> I still find the objection to this source highly unfounded, and slightly eccentric of you--> In the '']'', the ] 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."<ref name="Schechter2001">p 21</ref>
Schechter notes that Chinese police "just happened to have fire extinguishers at hand", and the victims were "rushed" to the hospital after their agonies were "thoroughly photographed" for state television. He also notes that while the government controlled media uncharacteristically released the story at once, "it took a week of production" before the footage was finally aired. CNN was in Tiananmen square at this time but its video tapes were confiscated and never aired.<ref name=schechter1/>


A video programme of the incident, ''False Fire'',<ref>http://www.falsefire.com NTDTV. 2001. "False Fire: China's Tragic New Standard in State Deception" Digital Video Disc.</ref> produced by Falun Gong related media outlet<ref>Susan V. Lawrence, "Falun Gong Adds Media Weapons In Struggle With China's Rulers",
]
Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition), 14 April 2004. pg. B.2I </ref> '']'', claimed a number of inconsistencies in the state's version of events (''see right insert''), and also stated that prior to 23 January 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",<ref name="WOIPFGpdf" /> and an "enormous fabrication".<ref name=woipfghighlights>WOIPFG, '''', accessed 4 October 2007.</ref>
''False Fire'',<ref name="FalseFire">, DVD, NTDTV, 2001.</ref> a video programme, produced by the Falun Gong related<ref>Susan V. Lawrence, "Falun Gong Adds Media Weapons In Struggle With China's Rulers",
Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition), April 14, 2004. pg. B.2I </ref> '']'' attempts to deconstruct the event, and points out several apparent inconsistencies in the Chinese Government's version of the story.<ref name="upholdjustice.org"/><ref name="irb-cisr.gc.ca"/> The documentary won a Certificate of Honorable Mention at the 51st Columbus International Film & Video Festival.


A '']'' article published on 8 February 2001 questioned why the Chinese regime happened to have a camera crew in place to film the incident.<ref name=mulls>Philip Pan, The Washington Post, , 8 February 2001, publ by Friends of Falun Gong</ref> "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."<ref name=mulls/>
International Educational Development (IED), a human rights ], said, after viewing ''False Fire'', that it had "discovered that had in fact been staged".<ref name="unhchr"/> Charles A. Radin of the '']'' stated "In the slowed version, it appears that Liu Chunling . . . collapsed not from the flames but from being bludgeoned by a man in a military overcoat.”<ref>, published on April 18, 2001, The Boston Globe cited in ''The Perfect Example of Political Propaganda: The Chinese Government’s Persecution against Falun Gong'' by Chin-Yunn Yang, Global media journal of Purdue University, accessed November 16, 2007</ref>


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."<ref name="mhpressstate2001">Press Statement, , Falun Gong, 1 February 2001, Retrieved: 11 September 2007</ref> 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.<ref name="mhpressstate2001"/>
] of Washington Post questioned why the Chinese government happened to have a camera crew in place to film the incident.<ref name=mulls>Philip Pan, The Washington Post, , February 8, 2001, publ by Friends of Falun Gong</ref> While the Chinese government claimed the close-up footage came from confiscated CNN tapes, CNN dismissed the possibility stating that their cameraman was arrested almost immediately after the incident began. Pan notes that "he 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 hand-held video camera to film the scene, not a large TV news camera."<ref name=mulls/>


]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.<ref name=ansfield>Jonathan Ansfield, ], , ], 23 July 2001</ref> WOIPFG believed that hostility toward Falun Gong from the general public escalated, the campaign "clearly intensified," "hate crimes" targeting Falun Gong increased.<ref name="WOIPFGpaper" /> It further alleged the death toll during police arrests or in prisons, labor camps and "brainwashing centers" all sharply increased.<ref name="WOIPFGpdf">World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, , accessed 16 September, 2007</ref>
Wall Street Journal's Ian Johnson was skeptical due to the speed with which the story was covered, observing that the state media "..reported the victim's death with unusual alacrity, implying that the death took place earlier than reported or the usually cautious media had top-level approval to rush out electronic reports and a televised dispatch, The 7 p.m. local evening news, for example had a filmed report from Mr Tan's hometown of Changde, a small city in Hunan province. Most reports for the evening news are vetted by noon, so the daily broadcasts rarely carries reports from the same day, let alone an event that happened at noon and involved satellite feeds from relatively remote parts of the country." <ref name=schechter1/>


] 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 ] or Jim Jones' cult in Guyana. He opines 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.<ref name=hamish>Hamish Mcdonald, , The Age, 16 October 2004</ref>
Falun Gong related sources note a European journalist based in Beijing as stating " I have never seen policemen patrolling on Tiananmenn Square carrying fire extinguishers. How come they all showed up today? The location of the incident is at least twenty minutes round-trip from the nearest building - the People's Great Hall."<ref name=schechter1/>


===The victims===
According to Beatrice Turpin of Associated Press TV who covered Falun Gong inside China for Associated Press TV, "here was a big brouhaha with Falun Gong protests and footage of police beating practitioners last Chinese New Year and it would certainly fit in with typical China strategy to stage an event this year and make the show their own."<ref name=schechter1/>
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 ] of attempting to discredit the practice of Falun Gong.<ref>, Falun Dafa Information Center, 23 January 2001, accessed 9 February 2007</ref> 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.<ref>, World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, August 2003</ref> 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.<ref name="gittings"/>


''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.<ref>Hannah Beech, , ], 29 January 2001, accessed 9 February 2007</ref> ''The Guardian'' commented that Li had confused his supporters in his New Year message<ref name=beyondthelimits/> 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.<ref name="gittings" />
] described the immolation incident as the Communist Party's main piece of "evidence" in its campaign to portray Falun Gong as "dangerous" similar to ] or Jim Jones' cult in Guyana. It states 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, and whether the incident was staged.<ref name=hamish>Hamish Mcdonald, , The Age, October 16, 2004</ref>


The '']'' 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.<ref>Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Former Falun Gong Followers Enlisted in China's War on Sect", ], 5 April 2002.</ref> According to the Hong Kong NGO ], all of the victims, except 12-year-old Liu Siying, had previously protested for Falun Gong in Tiananmen Square.<ref name=oneway/> 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 ] patient, would have been able to "speak to the Chinese media so soon after the tragedy."<ref name="Schechter2001
In a CBC documentary, Clive Ansley, Chair of CIPFG and China Country Monitor for Lawyers Rights’ Watch Canada states: "You've got Falun Gong people this country.. oppressed over and over again, they are not allowed to speak, they are not allowed to assert any of their rights as citizens and the level of frustration must be terribly high... I can understand people doing that.. that does not mean.. the movement is evil. But, ironically, we ultimately found out that it was a fraud anyway. It wasn't real, the people involved weren't Falun Gong members, it was completely staged by the government."<ref> - The Persecution of Falun Gong, CBC Documentary</ref>
">p 20</ref>


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.<ref name=real>Jeremy Page, Reuters, , 4 April 2002, published Rickross.com, accessed 9 February 2007</ref> 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."<ref name=real/>
====Discrepancies surrounding the identity of the participants====
Analysts have pointed out several inconsistencies surrounding identities of the immolators as claimed by state controlled CCTV. Liu Chunling, the only "self-immolator" to have died on the spot seems to collapse from being bludgeoned on the head by a man in military suit. Analysts have also pointed out discrepancies surrounding Liu Siying, a girl when the state media claimed was a 12 year old victim of the tragedy. One of the CNN producers at Tiananmenn Square at the time of the incident, standing just fifty feet away, said she had not seen any children there. The government claims that the doctors performed a tracheotomy on the victim. Some analysts point out that if this were true the child wouldn't have been able to speak to the Chinese media so soon after the tragedy<ref name=schechter1/> While the tragedy, as projected by state broadcasts, outraged many, only state-approved media outlets in China were given access to the child and western reporters were barred from direct contact.<ref name=ownby08>David Ownby, Falun Gong and the Future of China, 2008</ref> Schechter notes that she was projected by the state as a "sympathetic symbol", even a "poster child" for the supposed abuses by the "cult".


====Liu Chunling====
] of the ''Washington Post'' located the home of the two purported self-immolators, Liu Siying and Liu Chunling, who state media had claimed were daughter and mother, in Kaifeng, a town in a region that drew negative publicity after a recent fire in a disco killed hundred and scarred many others. Based on his reports, analysts opine that it is doubtful if the immolators could have been practitioners. Pan discovered that the young girl's mother, Liu Chunling, was not locally known as a practitioner but was depressed, mentally unstable, was accused of beating her daughter and mother and worked as an escort in a local night club.<ref name=schechter1/> David Ownby notes that "this is hardly a typical profile of a practitioner."<ref name=ownby08/>
'']'' 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.<ref>Xinhua General News Service. , 1 February 2001.</ref> Liu's neighbours, when interviewed by the '']'', 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.<ref name=oneway>Philip P. Pan, , International Herald Tribune, 5 February 2001|accessdate = 9 February 2007</ref> Falun Gong disputes that Liu was a practitioner because she "...was witnessed beating her step-mother and child... is not according to a Falun Gong practitioner's standard."<ref>, Clearwisdom.net, accessed 11 September 2007</ref> Specifically, Zhuan Falun urges tolerance, and followers should not lose their temper in disciplining children.<ref>, ]</ref>


Commenting on a footage of the video broadcast by Xinhua made available in slow motion by Falun Gong, Charles A. Radin of the '']'' agrees that Liu may have been "bludgeoned by a man in a military overcoat."<ref>, published on 18 April 2001, The Boston Globe cited in ''The Perfect Example of Political Propaganda: The Chinese Government’s Persecution against Falun Gong'' by Chin-Yunn Yang, Global media journal of Purdue University, accessed 16 November 2007</ref>
One of the main discrepancies pointed out by practitioners is that the people shown on the footage are not performing the exercises correctly.<ref name=schechter1/> The video false-fire draws particular attention to Wang Jindong, pointing out that neither his sitting position nor hand position reflect the positions required in the exercises of Falun Gong.<ref name=FalseFire/> WOIPFG states that analysis of the broadcasts by Speech Processing Laboratory at ] , indicates that the first person named as Wang Jindong who appeared on CCTV was not the person who appeared the second and third times.<ref name=woipfghighlights/> Falun Gong related sources also assert that images of Wang Jindong that appeared in different state controlled media reports seem to be of different people .<ref name="FalseFire"/><ref> Clearwisdom.net, '''', accessed October 4, 2007</ref>


===The January 1 article=== ====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."<ref name=real/>
On January 1, 2001, Li published an article called "''Beyond the Limits of Forbearance''", wherein, according to ''Time'', Li wrote that persecution of the Fa by "evil" (i.e. the Chinese authorities) could no longer be tolerated''. ]'' and '']'' said that Mr Li’s new article could have had something to do with the incident;<ref name="gittings">, ], January 29, 2001</ref> that it was implausible for it to have been staged; that the article appealed to "radical" practitioners and those feeling "desperate or out of touch with the exiled leadership”; and that "a Beijing arm of Falun Gong strongly suggested the protesters... were devotees".<ref name=breakingpoint/><ref>Hannah Beech, , ], January 29, 2001, accessed 2007-02-09</ref>


However, WOIPFG stated that the Speech Processing Laboratory at ] 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.<ref name=woipfghighlights/>
''The Guardian'''s John Gittings thought that Li had confused his supporters in his New Year message "that the 'forbearance' taught by Buddha 'does not mean tolerating evil beings'." According to Gittings, ten days later, Falun Gong in New York said that "certain disciples had some extreme interpretations we are going to resort to violence". Falun Gong said that Mr Li meant it was time to "bring the truth to light" about China's atrocities, using peaceful ways to expose and resist the persecution.<ref name="gittings" />


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.<ref> Clearwisdom.net, '''', accessed 4 October 2007</ref>
David Ownby, Professor of East Asian studies at the ], refers to the same article, and says that he finds no evidence of it being interpreted as a call to violence or retaliation: " assures his followers that they are right to want to eradicate the evil forces and that this evil will indeed be eradicated—although the form taken by such apparent militancy, beginning in the spring of 2001, was that of sitting in a meditative posture and 'emitting righteous thoughts.'"<ref name=ownbyfalungong>David Ownby, Falun Gong and the future of China, Oxford University Press, 2008. p. 215</ref> Based on his research, Ownby opines "violence of any sort is so alien to Falun Gong" that it is unlikely any practitioner would interpret the message as a call to violence. He states that the understanding of most North American practitioners he talked to was that practitioners could "insist that that Falun Gong was good and the persecution was bad without having to worry about violating the cardinal tenet of forbearance".<ref name=ownbyfalungong/>


==Aftermath==
The ''Asian ]'' wrote that the danger of putting Li's article as cause for the immolations "implies, insidiously, that the blame lies with the victims... the fundamental, human issue is the Chinese government's brutal campaign to wipe out Falun Dafa and the misery resulting from it."<ref name=awsjlimits>Asian Wall Street Journal, (requires registration), January 26, 2001.</ref> They write that in the face of the "brutalities" visited on practitioners, "it's not so difficult to imagine why a few persons would have succumbed to despair. And that makes them deserving of our pity rather than our cynicism."
===Government actions===

==Chinese 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.<ref name=mediachannel/> 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.<ref name=mediachannel/>


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".<ref name=mediachannel/> The media parade incited 8 million students to join the ''"Anti-Cult action by the Youth Civilized Communities Across the Nation"''.<ref name="Sunderland" /> 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,<ref name=oneway/> with 12 million children submitting writings disapproving of the practice.<ref name="Sunderland" /><ref name=dangerous>Mickey Spiegel, , Human Rights Watch, 2002, accessed Sept 28, 2007</ref>
===Propaganda campaign===
Reporters Sans Frontiers, in their China annual report 2002, note that a few days before the immolation, the authorities and Chinese media had launched a new campaign against the movement.<ref name=RSF></ref>


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.<ref name="Sunderland" /> The ]'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.<ref name="Sunderland" /> 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.<ref name=oneway/>
According to Amnesty International: " important part of the government’s propaganda campaign has been publicizing statements from people claiming to be former Falun Gong practitioners who denounce Falun Gong, speak of the damage the practice has brought to Chinese society, praise the government for its firm action against the movement, and eventually show their deepest gratitude towards the government’s saving them from being brainwashed by the 'evil cult'."<ref>Amnesty International. (2000). People’s republic of China: The Crackdown on Falun Gong and other so-called “heretical organizations.” New York: Amnesty International USA Publications. Referenced in , Global Media Journal, Purdue University</ref>


By March 2001, before the ], ] ] and former Premier ] made it clear that the elimination of the group was top priority.<ref name="Sunderland" /> An anti-cult exhibition targeting Falun Gong was held in July 2001 at the ] in Beijing;<ref>, ], 27 July 2001</ref> Beijing newspapers have run exhibits of former practitioners thanking the Communist Party of China for rescuing them;<ref name="Sunderland" /> in the form of a cartoon of Li Hongzhi covered in ]s, the Chinese government compared Li to ].<ref name=ansfield/>
Associated Press writer Christopher Bodeen wrote that "China's government is seizing on the dramatic suicide attempt by purported members of the Falun Gong sect to try and sway a public that has stood up on the sidelines during the eighteen month long crackdown"


===The surviving victims' fate===
''The New York Times''' Erick Eckholm opined that the Chinese government's propaganda was "as wooden and anachronistic as ever. First, suppress the news. Then, days later, orchestrate a crescendo of extreme television, radio and newspaper reports and editorials. Finally, marshall relatives of the duped victims to utter condemnations of the evil Master Li, then ask major groups -- from leaders of Catholic, Buddhist and Muslim churches to the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce -- to issue shrill denunciations." <ref>Erick Eckholm, , New York Times, Feb 4 2001, pg 4.5</ref>
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.


At the time of the April 2002 meeting with foreign press, Chen Guo and her mother were still in the hospital. Chen had a face of blotchy grafted skin with no nose and no ears and one eye covered by a flap of skin; she had lost both her hands.<ref name=real/> Her mother had also lost her hands, ears and nose; both eyes were covered with skin grafts. The fire had left Wang Jindong with scarred, leathery cheeks and blackened fingers.<ref name=real/>
The government immediately used the twelve-year-old Liu Siying as an example that Falun Gong was "harmful to children". Analysts point out that she had become a "poster child" and "sympathetic symbol" and that her image, circulated widely, outraged many. Western media was denied direct access to the victims.<ref name=mediachannel/> A media parade that followed incited 8 million students to join an ''"Anti-Cult action by the Youth Civilised Communities Across the Nation"''.<ref name="Sunderland" />

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".<ref name=mediachannel/> Within a month, chinese state 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.<ref name="Sunderland" /> The ]'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.<ref name="Sunderland" /> 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.<ref name=oneway>Philip P. Pan, , International Herald Tribune, February 5, 2001|accessdate = 2007-02-09</ref>

By March 2001, before the ], ] ] and former Premier ] made it clear that the "elimination" of the group was top priority.<ref name="Sunderland" /> An anti-cult exhibition targeting Falun Gong was held in July 2001 at the ] in Beijing;<ref>, ], July 27, 2001</ref> Beijing newspapers have run exhibits of "former practitioners" "thanking" the Communist Party of China for "rescuing" them.<ref name="Sunderland" />

On February 28, Chinese officials held a rare press conference "to re-iterate that recent events proved the depravity" of practitioners.<ref name=schechter1/> Ian Johnson notes that the chinese official, Mr Liu, "spent much of the news conference dodging questions about Falun Dafa practitioners who, according to human-rights and United Nations officials have died in police custody."<ref name=schechter1/>

====Intimidation of foreign correspondents====

According to ], in February, state media accused CNN, the Associated Press, and Agence France-Presse news agencies of having "encouraged" the immolation at Tiananmen Square. The authorities also threatened journalists with legal action for "homicide." Reporters sans frontières' foreign correspondents in Beijing state this was an attempt by the regime to discredit foreign coverage of the country's repression against the Falun Gong movement. <ref name=RSF/> A CNN official confirms that one of his teams was arrested that day near Tiananmen Square and that police confiscated their videotapes. <ref name=RSF/> This footage was never aired.<ref name=schechter1/>


==See also== ==See also==
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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, 23 January 2001 when seven people attempted to set themselves on fire. One died there, another in hospital after a few weeks. 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, given the tight censorship exercised by the Chinese authorities.

According to Time, 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. Time said that it was possible for misguided practitioners to have taken it upon themselves to demonstrate in this manner, handing a propaganda opportunity to the Chinese authorities. Falun Gong in New York emphatically denies that these people could have been practitioners on grounds that the teachings explicitly forbid suicide and killing. Falun Gong and some third-party commentators point to apparent inconsistencies in the government's version of events, and claim that the incident was staged in order to turn public opinion against the practice and build support for its persecution.

Background

Main article: Persecution of Falun Gong

From 25 April 1999 to July, 1999 about 300 Falun Gong demonstrations were held around the country. On 22 July of the same year, a decision was made by the authorities to officially crack down on the group. By August, state controlled newspapers began running lengthy exposés about Falun Gong. In Shanghai, a petition against the group began circulating on 13 February yielding 100,000 signatures in 10 days. According to Danny Schechter, these government organized 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 1 January 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 demonstrations "especially in Tiananmen Square" according to Time; the same article also stated that Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi had urged followers to immobilize the police and other "evil scoundrels" with supernatural powers.

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: China 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 1 January 2001, Li Hongzhi published an article called "Beyond the Limits of Forbearance" which Time believed appealed to more radical practitioners. Therein, 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 later said this meant non-violent forms of exposing and resisting the persecution.

The incident

On 23 January 2001 (Chinese New Year's eve) a group of men and women attempted to set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square, five succeeded at ignition.

Romanized name Chinese name Relations Ignited Description Outcome
Wang Jin-dong 王進東 yes Male Hospitalized; 15 years' imprisonment
Liu Chun-ling 劉春玲 Mother of Si-ying yes Female Died on the spot
Liu Si-ying 劉思影 Daughter of Chun-ling yes 12 year old girl Died weeks later after the event
Chen Guo 陳果 Daughter of Hao Hui-jun yes 19 year old college student, Female Treated at Beijing Jishuitan Hospital; severely disfigured
Hao Hui-jun 郝惠君 Mother of Chen Guo yes Female Hospitalized; severely disfigured
Liu Bao-rong 劉葆榮 no Male Life sentence
Liu Yun-fang 劉雲芳 no Male Failed to ignite gasoline

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 16 January, 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 soda bottles; each had been armed with two lighters in case one would fail. Two died and three were severely disfigured by the act.

Reporting and analysis

False Fire

 by New Tang Dynasty Television

The programme attempted to deconstruct the event, and challenged several apparent inconsistencies in the Chinese Government's version of the story:

  • The hair and bottle of gasoline at the feet of the alleged self immolator is intact, although this should have caught fire first.
  • Police, not normally known to carry fire extinguishers on duty, appeared to have pieces of fire-fighting equipment on hand on the day of the self-immolations.
  • Liu Chunling, appears to be hit on the head by a blunt object as police attempt to put out the fire. The programme argues that Liu died from a severe blow to the head.
  • The camera of the CCTV footage zooms in on the scene as it unfolds; surveillance cameras in Tiananmen Square are usually fixed.
  • Wang Jindong shouts comments that do not form part of Falun Dafa teachings; his sitting position also does not reflect the full or half lotus position as in the Falun Dafa teachings.
  • The hospital treatment of the victims, as recorded by Chinese state media, is inconsistent with proper care of severe burn victims: for instance, patients were not kept in sterile rooms
  • The girl who allegedly underwent a tracheotomy appeared to be able to speak and sing clearly mere days after the surgery

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 23 January 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".

A Washington Post article published on 8 February 2001 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.

File:Selfimmowflag.jpg
Freeze-frame of the CCTV video of the victims showing unburned hair and the intact bottle of gasoline at his feet

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. He opines 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.

The victims

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. 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 step-mother and child... is not according to a Falun Gong practitioner's standard." Specifically, Zhuan Falun urges tolerance, and followers 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

Three pictures broadcast by state-media, presented by Falun Gong as evidence purporting that Wang Jindong "was played by different people".

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 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 Civilized 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.

The surviving victims' fate

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.

At the time of the April 2002 meeting with foreign press, Chen Guo and her mother were still in the hospital. Chen had a face of blotchy grafted skin with no nose and no ears and one eye covered by a flap of skin; she had lost both her hands. Her mother had also lost her hands, ears and nose; both eyes were covered with skin grafts. The fire had left Wang Jindong with scarred, leathery cheeks and blackened fingers.

See also

References

  1. ^ Matthew Gornet, The Breaking Point, Time, 25 June 2001
  2. ^ Chrandra D. Smith, "Chinese Persecution of Falun Gong", October 2004, retrieved 8 July 2006
  3. ^ Staff and wire reports, Tiananmen tense after fiery protests, CNN, 24 January 2001, accessed 9 February 2007
  4. ^ Judith Sunderland. From the Household to the Factory: China's campaign against Falungong. Human Rights Watch, 2002. ISBN 1564322696
  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. ^ World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, Investigation Reports on the Persecution of Falun Gong: Volume 1, 2003-2004, p X
  11. ^ Li Hongzhi, Beyond the Limits of Forbearance, Clearwisdom, retrieved 14 September 2007
  12. 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
  13. ^ Danny Schechter, The Fires This Time: Immolation or Deception In Beijing?, Mediachannel, 22 February 2001
  14. ^ Xinhua story, The Tragedy of Falun Gong Practitioners- RESCUE: Doctors, Nurses Rush to Save Life, China.org.cn, 31 January 2001, accessed 1 August 2007
  15. "Second Investigation Report on the 'Tiananmen Square Self-Immolation Incident.'", World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFalun Gong), August 2003. Accessed: 6 February 2007
  16. RESPONSES TO INFORMATION REQUESTS "CHN43081.E" Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. Accessed: 6 February 2007
  17. ^ China prepares for new offensive against 'dangerous' sect , The Guardian, 29 January 2001
  18. ^ Danny Schechter, Falun Gong's Challenge to China, Akashic Books, New York, 2001, pp 20-23 Cite error: The named reference "Schechter2001" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  19. http://www.falsefire.com NTDTV. 2001. "False Fire: China's Tragic New Standard in State Deception" Digital Video Disc.
  20. Susan V. Lawrence, "Falun Gong Adds Media Weapons In Struggle With China's Rulers", Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition), 14 April 2004. pg. B.2I
  21. ^ World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, Investigation of the So-Called Self-Immolation in Tiananmen Square, accessed 16 September, 2007
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  23. ^ Philip Pan, The Washington Post, China Mulls Murder Charges for Foreign Journalists, 8 February 2001, publ by Friends of Falun Gong
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  25. ^ Jonathan Ansfield, Reuters, After Olympic win, China takes new aim at Falun Gong, CESNUR, 23 July 2001
  26. Hamish Mcdonald, What's wrong with Falun Gong, The Age, 16 October 2004
  27. Press Release, Falun Dafa Information Center, 23 January 2001, accessed 9 February 2007
  28. Second Investigation Report on the "Tiananmen Square Self-immolation Incident", World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, August 2003
  29. Hannah Beech, Too Hot to Handle, Time, 29 January 2001, accessed 9 February 2007
  30. Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Former Falun Gong Followers Enlisted in China's War on Sect", New York Times, 5 April 2002.
  31. ^ Philip P. Pan, One-Way Trip to the End in Beijing, International Herald Tribune, 5 February 2001|accessdate = 9 February 2007
  32. ^ Jeremy Page, Reuters, Survivors say China Falun Gong immolations real, 4 April 2002, published Rickross.com, accessed 9 February 2007
  33. Xinhua General News Service. "Families of Falun Gong Victims After Tragedy", 1 February 2001.
  34. Special Topic on the Self-Immolation, Clearwisdom.net, accessed 11 September 2007
  35. teachings on "People with Great Inborn Quality" from Zhuan Falun, Falun Dafa
  36. "Falun Gong Appeals for Help: Vigils Held on Eve of UN China Vote,”", published on 18 April 2001, The Boston Globe cited in The Perfect Example of Political Propaganda: The Chinese Government’s Persecution against Falun Gong by Chin-Yunn Yang, Global media journal of Purdue University, accessed 16 November 2007
  37. Clearwisdom.net, Report from the "World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong" Reveals Chinese Government Lies -- Official Government Media Seriously Violate Basic Reporting Principles and Professional Ethics, accessed 4 October 2007
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  39. Comments from China's Anti-Cult Exhibition, People's Daily, 27 July 2001

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