NTDTV: On January 23, 2001, news of five people setting themselves on fire at China’s iconic Tiananmen Square gripped the country. Within hours, state-run media reported that those involved were followers of Falun Gong. The incident drew world-wide attention. The Chinese regime quickly used it to justify the nationwide campaign they had launched in 1999 to, quote, “eradicate” the spiritual group. To date, there are nearly 3,500 documented cases of Falun Gong practitioners confirmed to have died in the Chinese regime’s persecution.
Although the incident turned into a propaganda tool for the Chinese regime, it was later proven to be a staged event—used to rile up the public against Falun Gong.
[Mo Jiangang, Chinese Rights Activist]:
“The Tiananmen self-immolation incident is the Chinese Communist Party’s biggest political failure. It used slander and lies to hurt those with belief, creating an atmosphere of fear, imposing this fear on people with beliefs.”
This award-winning documentary produced by NTD shows various inconsistencies of the Chinese regime’s published version of events. These include why two police vans, equipped with fire-fighting equipment were immediately available at the scene, this mysterious blow to one of the victim’s head and the incorrect posture of this victim who claimed to be doing a Falun Gong exercise. Questions were also raised over how Chinese state-run media were able to obtain the footage, complete with close-ups and shots of varying angles during what would’ve been a very chaotic moment.
Last week, State-run Xinhua News Agency revisited the story, interviewing two people reportedly involved in the incident. But for many Chinese, those kinds of reports are no longer convincing.
[Zhu Yufu, Chinese Rights Activist]:
“Falun Gong is about Truth, Compassion and Tolerance. They would not harm their own lives. Self-immolation is incompatible with Falun Gong’s beliefs. I have been imprisoned with Falun Gong practitioners, and have witnessed the severe political persecution they have endured. I admire their immovable spirit under the suppression of the communist regime.”
Spokesperson for the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, Wang Zhiyuan says as more people become aware of the persecution, more of what the Chinese regime has done will be exposed.
Many international organizations have documented the staged self-immolation incident as part of the Chinese regime’s persecution of Falun Gong. More at NTDTV
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