The issue of killing is very sensitive. For practitioners, we have set the strict requirement that they cannot kill lives. Whether it is of the Buddha School, the Tao School, or the Qimen School, regardless of which school or practice it is, as long as it is an upright cultivation practice, it will consider this issue very absolute and prohibit killing--this is for sure. Because the consequence of killing a life is so serious, we must address it in detail. In the original Buddhism, killing mainly referred to taking a human life, which was the most serious act. Later, killing large-sized lives, large domestic animals, or relatively large animals were all considered very serious. Why has the issue of killing been taken so seriously in the community of cultivators? In the past, Buddhism held that lives that were not supposed to die would, if killed, become lonesome spirits and homeless ghosts. Before, rituals were performed to free these people's souls from misery. Without such services, these souls would suffer hunger and thirst, living in a very bitter situation. This is what Buddhism said in the past.
Falun Gong clearly prohibits killing and suicide. Yet someone has said, "Falun Gong doesn't call it suicide. They call it 'Consummation'." Nonsense. Falun Dafa teaches that Consummation is the completion of one's spiritual cultivation, which happens naturally at the end of one's life. It is something that cannot be forced, therefore it is entirely opposite to self-immolation or anything related. Consider how Buddhist and Daoist monks strive to reach enlightenment- they don't give a thought to suicide. Mr. Li has said in previous lectures that no one should even think about Consummation, as this would be an attachment. A practitioner's time is best spent on his or her cultivation (assimilating to the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance in one's daily life to reach one's true self). Any attempt to "reach Consummation" through an intention-filled act would be going against the teachings.---- Zhuan Falun ("The Issue of Killing," Lecture Seven) by Li HongzhiQuestion: The third question is the issue of killing as mentioned in the book. Killing a life is a very big sin. If a person commits suicide, does it count as a sin or not?
Master: It counts as a sin. Now, this human society is no longer good, and all kinds of strange and bizarre things have appeared. They talk about the so-called euthanasia and give injections to let people die. Everyone knows it. Why do they give an injection to let a person die? They think that he is suffering. However, we think that his suffering is eliminating karma. When he is reincarnated in the next life, he will have a light body without karma, and he will have a great fortune awaiting him. While he is amidst the pain and is eliminating karma, he is certainly not having an easy time. If you do not let him eliminate his karma and kill him, isn't that murder? If he is gone, carrying the karma, in the next life he will have to repay the karma. So, which would you say is right? Committing suicide has another sin. This is because a person's life is pre-arranged. You have disrupted the sequence of the god's entire layout. Through the obligations you carry out to society, between people there is this kind of interrelationship. If the person dies, won't this entire sequence disrupt the god's arrangement then? If you disrupt it, he will not let you go. Therefore, committing suicide is sinful.--- Falun Dafa Lecture in Sydney, by Li Hongzhi
Someone might say, "Fine, but there is bound to be the
occassional crazy person who will take things to the extreme." In almost
every lecture published by Mr. Li, it mentions that practitioners cannot go
to extremes, must be part of regular society, and focus on cultivation
of moral character. Otherwise, they cannot be considered practitioners.
Also, it is incorrect to say self-immolation is extreme-- it is entirely
opposed to the teachings. With it being entirely opposite, can you blame the
teachings? If someone killed during a yoga class, would you blame yoga?
Therfore, no
genuine Falun Dafa practitioner would consider doing such a thing as
self-immolation. At the very least, the teachings and the practice of Falun
Gong cannot be held responsible for anyone deciding to do such a thing. On
the contrary, Falun Gong practitioners are taught to forbear and take
day-to-day matters lightly. It is even more erroneous
to state that the teachings lead to suicide when a number of the
fallacies reveal that the people involved in the staged
self-immolation were not practitioners, and Fallacy #36 shows that there are
no valid or sound reports of Falun Gong
practitioners killing or committing suicide before or after this
event.
--- Zhuan Falun ("I Treat All Practitioners as My
Disciples," Lecture Three) by Li Hongzhi
2. Liu Chunling Died from
Being Struck on the Head, Not From Self-Immolation
Doing a slow-motion sequence of the Chinese
Central TV (CCTV) program shows that one of the women, Liu Chunling--who in
the Xinhua (Chinese Communist Party's official mouthpiece) version of events
supposedly died from burn injuries--actually received a sharp blow to the
forehead, with what looks like a metal bar, delivered by a man wearing an army
overcoat. She is seen crumpling instantly to the ground and most likely died
from that blow. The man wearing a military coat was clearly not attempting
to rescue Liu Chunling. Who is he? Why would he murder Liu Chunling?[1]
Normal treatment for a burn victim: Doctors and nurses wear
protective clothing and masks, and the burn victim is exposed to the air in a
sterile environment to avoid infection.
CCTV's report, "Tiananmen Square
Self-immolation Incident," shows the burn victim fully wrapped in gauze. The
reporter wears no protective clothing or mask, and is shown interviewing the
victim without any concern for spreading infection. 20. "Self-Immolator" Quotes Not
Falun Gong
1)
Liu Siying was reported by Chinese media to have said that her own mother told
her to set herself on fire to reach "The Heavenly Golden Kingdom" in some
reports, and "Nirvana" in other reports. Yet, these terms are not part of
Falun Gong.
2) Another
"self-immolator" appeared frequently on TV claiming to be a Falun
Gong practitioner. She said that she saw others starting the fire first,
producing black smoke. Yet she felt that when "de "
(virtue, a white substance in another dimension) is burned it should produce
white smoke, since "de" is a white substance. Only when burning "karma" (bad
karma, a black substance in another dimension) should it produce black smoke.[16]
No sentence in Falun Dafa states
that burning "de" will generate white smoke; nor that burning "karma" will
generate black smoke. The terms relate to morality, and have never
been associated with combustion!
22. Liu Siying Denied Family Visitation, Dies
Mysteriously
The authorities did not allow
any reporters other than those from the Xinhua News Agency to interview
12-year-old Siying, nor did they allow any of her family members to visit. They
even threatened her grandmother, to such an extent that the elderly woman was
terrified to be interviewed by any reporters.
Medical staff at the Jishuitan
Hospital reports that the cause of the death of Liu Siying was highly
suspicious. She suddenly died on March 17, 2001 when she was ready to be
discharged from the hospital. One of the medical staff, who treated Liu Siying
at the Jishuitan Hospital, said, “Liu Siying died suddenly at a time when her
burns were more or less healed, her health had basically recovered, and she was
ready to be discharged from the hospital. The cause of her death is very
suspicious.” During the period of time right before she died, including Friday,
March 16, 2001, one day before her death, Liu Siying’s electrocardiogram (EKG)
and other tests all showed normal results. Then, on Saturday, March 17, 2001,
between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., doctors suddenly discovered that Liu Siying
was in critical condition. She died shortly afterwards. In addition, on the
morning of March 17, 2001, between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m., the head of the Jishuitan
Hospital and the head of the Beijing City Medical Administration Division paid a
visit to Liu Siying at her hospital room and talked to her for quite a long
time. “At that time, Liu Siying was still quite animated and active,” the staff
member reported. The autopsy of Liu Siying took place at the Jishuitan Hospital,
but the autopsy report was issued by the Emergency Center. In addition, the
autopsy report didn’t disclose any discussion of the case. It only made a
general statement that her death was likely due to problems with her
myocardium.[17] Among the people accused of self-immolation, Liu Siying is
the person who was most likely to divulge the secrets because she was so young
that the threats would not have been as effective as they would be used on the
adults. The adults could be sentenced to jail or isolated from the outside
world, at least temporarily. But Liu Siying was under the legal age of being
detained. Therefore, to detain her publicly would have an extremely negative
impact, but releasing her would leave them vulnerable that she might speak-out,
and let the truth be known. The only way to guarantee her silence and avoid
divulging any secrets to the public was to kill her.[18]
23. Fire-Fighting
Equipment Suddenly Appears on Tiananmen Square the Day of the
Self-Immolation
The Beijing Evening News reported on
February 16, 2001 that "there were 3 or 4 police putting out the fire of each
self-immolator." Altogether, they had about 25 pieces of firefighting equipment.
This story differed
significantly from the program broadcast by Chinese Central TV. The CCTV program
showed that there were only two police cars at the scene. Police officers
who patrol the Square do not normally carry firefighting equipment, and the
footage does not show any firefighting equipment in Tiananmen Square
itself. In Beijing, the closest building to the People's Hero Monument is
at least 10 minutes away on foot. Where did the police get the equipment and how
did they get it so quickly? Why would two police vehicles be carrying 25
pieces of firefighting equipment to patrol Tiananmen Square? Were they expecting
to have to put out a fire that day?[19]
24. Fire-Extinguishers Were Not the Normal Type
Policemen Use
In the video footage, the
extinguishers used during the incident are the type similar to larger ones
used within a building, with the size being about the length of an adult's
arm. Extinguishers found in IVECO patrol cars should be the smaller
type, about the length of an adult's forearm. So, it is likely
the extinguishers used were brought ahead of time.[20]
25. Ambulance Took Two Hours to Make
a Twenty-Minute Trip
According a January 30, 2001 report of the Xinhua
News Agency, at 2:41 p.m. on January 23, 2001, on the northeastern side of the
People’s Hero Monument, Wang Jindong was the first to set himself on fire: “Less
than a minute later, several policemen used four fire extinguishers and rapidly
extinguished the fire on this man. They then used a police vehicle that was on
duty to rapidly transport him to the hospital for emergency care.” According to
this report, several minutes later, on the north side of the People’s Hero
Monument, four women who were positioned not too far apart lit gasoline that
they had poured on themselves. It only took a minute and half for the police to
put out the flames. “Less than seven minutes after the incident took place,
three ambulances from the Beijing Emergency Medical Center arrived at the scene
and transported the people who were injured to the best burn unit in Beijing,
the Jishuitan Hospital, for emergency treatment.” According to the Xinhua News
Agency, the self-immolation incident took place at 2:41 p.m.. Adding the seven
minutes it took to put out the fire and the twenty plus minutes that it normally
takes for a vehicle to go from Tiananmen Square to the Jishuitan Hospital (it
should take less time for an ambulance to make the journey), the participants in
the self-immolation should have arrived at the Jishuitan Hospital no later than
3:30 p.m. Yet several medical personnel at the Jishuitan Hospital have confirmed
that those who committed the self-immolation didn’t arrive at the hospital until
around 5:00 p.m.. Between approximately 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., two hours
elapsed. Reports from the Xinhua News Agency couldn’t explain where those people
went during this period of time. What really happened during this period of
time? Why did it take the ambulance two hours to complete a normal twenty-minute
drive?[21]
26. Woman Drinks Half a Bottle of Gasoline, Lives to
Tell About It
Another alleged self-immolator, Liu Baorong, was never
mentioned in the news agency’s first report, and there is no footage to show she
was in Tiananmen Square. She claimed she was prepared to self-immolate but
changed her mind at the last minute when she saw the others burning. In a
video interview, she states, “I drank about half a
bottle, and wanted to pour the rest on my body.”
Drinking one tenth
of an ounce of gasoline per pound of body weight will cause
death. For someone of Liu's weight, half a bottle of gasoline
would be enough to kill.[22]
27. News of the Self-Immolation
Broadcast Immediately
Within two hours of the incident, Xinhua immediately made
an announcment blaming Falun Gong practitioners for the
self-immolation. Immediately following the announcement, the Focus
Interview program of CCTV, broadcasted a commentary program and made
authorative-sounding conclusions, again accusing Falun Gong.[23] This was in stark contrast to
the way news is usually handled in China, where lower-level officials report to
their superiors and so on until the top officials allow the news to be
published.[24] Manuscripts of sensitive news stories to be
aired on the Xinhua News Agency must be reviewed and drafted many times. In this
instance the story was out to the public with such unheard of speed that it
roused people’s suspicions.
"In terms of response time, another foreign journalist in Beijing expressed shock that Xinhua was able to release the first report on the incident almost immediately and in English, no less. Every Chinese citizen knows that every report from Xinhua usually has to first go through several rounds of approval by higher-ups and is generally 'old news' by the time it is published. Moreover, state-run media have never released any photos or video of Falun Gong protests in the course of 18 months of persecution to the foreign press, so why now and with so little hesitation? And why only in English and not in Chinese?" ....
The Wall Street Journal's Ian Johnson, one of the most insightful journalists following this story, had his suspicions aroused by the speed with which this story was covered, observing that the state media "reported [the victim's] death with unusual alacrity, implying that either 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 broadcast 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."
The Fires This Time: Immolation of Deception in Bejing? By Danny Schechter
Although the government controlled media aired the story within two hours, it is worth noting that it took over a week to complete video production of the event.
"At about 2:30 p.m.… I flicked on the lighter and I was instantly engulfed by flames. I did not have time to sit in the [double-leg crossing] so I sat in the single crossing leg posture. Driven by the large flames, the air was making loud noises. I could hardly breathe, but I was very clear that the goal will soon be realized. At that moment, police tried to stop the fire by covering me with something unknown. I twice refused to let them put out the fires on my body. A few moments later, someone used fire extinguishers and the fire was put out. I was very disappointed, stood up and called out, 'Truth, Compassion and Forbearance [Zhen, Shan and Ren] is the universal law. It is the law which everyone must follow. My Master is the chief Buddha.'"
At this point in the article, Wang Jindong said
that he "stood up and called out." More specifically, he said that he stood up
and called out the words after the fire was put out.
An earlier Xinhua report
published on January 30, 2001, stated, "Afterwards, red flames burst
out from the man, forming a dark smoke. Amongst the red flames, the man shouted
desperately: 'The great law of the universe is the law that everyone must
experience.'"
The two
reports contradict in their descriptions of the fire and the words Wang calls
out. Additionally, both reports contradict with CCTV's video footage, in
which:
"Liu Yunfang and I hung the bottles on our necks and secured the bottles under our armpits with sticky tape, then we put on our wool jumpers, followed by cotton-padded (quilted) jackets. After that, we took with us the single-edged blades and lighters which Hao Huijun had purchased in advance."
"At about 2:30 pm, I used the blade I had prepared in my hand to cut through the clothes and sliced the bottle, and then I threw away the blade and took out the lighter. At that moment, the police were walking towards me, and when they were at about ten paces from me, I flicked on the lighter and I was instantly engulfed by flames".
According to Wang's own account, the petrol on
his body came from a bottle hung around his neck and attached under
his armpit by sticky tape. The bottle was sliced open and the petrol flowed
over his body.
However,
according to the January 30 Xinhua article:
"At 2:41 p.m., north-east of People's Heroes Memorial Monument, a man in his forties, facing north-west, sat in a 'leg-crossing' posture, and continuously poured liquid over his body from a green plastic bottle. Afterwards, red flames burst out from the man's body, exuding a pall of dark smoke...."
The article clearly states that Wang
Jindong had "continuously poured liquid over his body from a green plastic
bottle." Both articles give lengthy descriptions on how the so-called
self-immolators managed to pour petrol over themselves. Both refer to the
fact that the group had test-run the procedure several times. That is
to say, it was very important to the
self-immolators how the petrol would be poured onto themselves.
Yet the two reports are entirely at odds with each other over this very crucial
technical issue.
31. Chinese Reports
Contradict... Part 4
In "Wang Jingdong's Personal
Statement...," Wang said that after the self-immolation, the police vehicle
drove at a very high speed towards Jishuitan Hospital. "At the hospital, I was
lying on a bed in an emergency consultation room...."
A Beijing Evening News article dated February 16, 2001,
states: "Xiao Yang, who is able to sprint 100 meters in 13 seconds, and
his team-mates carried Wang Jindong, whose hair had been completely burnt, onto
the police vehicle, drove quickly to the Xuanwu District City Emergency Center
at lightning speed. Later he was transferred from the emergency centre to
Jishuitan Hospital."
"At 2:41 p.m., northeast of the People's Heros' Monument, a man in his fifties, facing west, sat in a "leg-crossing" posture, and continuously poured liquid over his body from a green plastic bottle. Afterwards, red flames burst out from the man's the body, exuding a pall of dark smoke. Amid the roaring inferno of flame, this man screamed with the top of his voice and with all his might" .… "almost at the same time, at the northeastern side of the square, a middle-aged woman suddenly took out from her bag a Sprite bottle. She opened her mouth and gulped a few times on the liquid, and also poured it all over her body. At that moment, the pungent smell of petrol filled the air" .... "at the northeastern side of People's Heros' Memorial Monument, four policemen discovered the self-immolation of the man in his fifties first. They quickly took out the fire extinguishers, and rushed to his side with maximum speed…. In less than one minute, four fire extinguishers had been used by the police, which quickly put out the flames on the man; he was then rushed to the hospital in the police vehicle on duty …"
These details can only be obtained if one
is actually present on the scene. From the report, however, we cannot tell how
the author obtained these details. The article never mentions anything
about interviewing eyewitnesses.
34. Photo Published in Newspaper Shows Sprite Bottle
in Different Position
According to observers in
China, a photo published in the Jin Zhou Daily shows the
Sprite bottle placed on the ground beside Wang Jindong's right
leg. This is different from what is shown in the CCTV video in which
the bottle is shown between his legs. The photo was published
around February 1, 2001.[25]
35. Four Years Later, CCP Defames
Falun Gong-- Using the Same Event
On
January 17, 2005, former Chinese premier and democracy supporter Zhao Ziyang,
who had been put under house arrest for fifteen years by the CCP, passed away.
Mr. Zhao's death caused strong reactions in China and abroad. People, from the
ordinary Chinese in China to top officials in the U.S., from Hong Kong
representatives to the former Soviet Union leader Gorbachev, mourned his death,
and gave high praise of his achievements. In contrast, the Chinese official
media kept quiet about Zhao's death, and only reported his death with one
sentence in the state newspaper. Obituaries posted on the web by the
official Xinhua News.net were quickly removed. The Chinese Communist Party
was obviously nervousness over this issue.
On
January 18, 2005, Xinhua News Agency broadcasted the
"self-immolation" of four years prior. This time, they attempted to shift
the Chinese people's attention from Zhao's death and instigated more hatred
against Falun Gong.
The CCP not only brought up
the topic in China, but overseas as well. By January 21, 2005, the Associated Press
(AP) published a biased view of the CCP's version of the "self-immolation"
and its aftermath. The article uncritically accepted propaganda from an unreliable source
and reported it as fact, going completely against journalistic integrity.[26] Many newspapers later
apologized for running the article.
Why would the CCP go to such great lengths to report an
event that happened four years ago, the day after a significant event in
China?[27]
36. No Falun Gong Practitioners Confirmed to Have
Comitted Suicide Before or After the Incident
Since the introduction of Falun Gong in May 1992,
to the start of the persecution in July 1999, there were no news reports of any
Falun Gong practitioners comitting suicide. With an estimate of 70-100
million people practicing Falun Gong in 1998, and with China's suicide rate of
23 per 100,000, it should not be a problem to find up to 23,000
suicides. Yet there were none reported. This truly bespeaks of Falun
Gong's effect on health.
Once
the persecution began, the Chinese state-run media began broadcasting
report after report of crimes, murders, and suicides caused by Falun Gong
practitioners. Within the first six months of the persecution, over 300,000
anti-Falun Gong reports were released.[28] Obviously the sudden
increase of reports is room for suspiscion. Some of these reports were
investigated locally and found out to be made up or false (i.e. an average
citizen commits suicide and is labelled Falun Gong practitioner). Other
reports label practitioners in Chinese labor camps who have died as
suicides, but generally these people are proven to have
been tortured to death and quickly cremated by authorities.
In recent years, Chinese
media has been less apt to speak of Falun Gong publicly, but from time to
time they manage to sneak a report in. For instance, in November 2005
the Beijing Daily News claimed a Falun Gong
practitioner self-immolated in Beijing. This was quickly
discovered to be a hoax. (Click here for details)
Perhaps the most telling is the behavior of Falun Gong
practitioners in other areas outside of Mainland China. Thousands of
practitioners live in over 60 countries around the world. Many live in the
Chinese-language regions of Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan-- regions that are
not controlled by the CCP. Taiwan has over 300,000 practitioners
alone.
No suicides
of Falun Gong practitioners have ever been reported.outside of Mainland
China.
37.
The "Self-Immolation" Does Not Match the Profile of
Other Self-Immolations in History
Self-immolation is very unconventional as it is
long and extremely painful. Of the several that have been reported in
recent history, most are done out of protest. Reasons for these
self-immolations include: protesting against war, against authoritarian
rule, against military occupation, against government policy, against legal
trials, and depression.
However, the reasons given by the Tiananmen
self-immolatiors were things such as "going to heaven." Nothing
was ever mentioned about protesting anything, and the group was certainly not
depressed. If they were not trying to protest the government, then the fact
that they went to Tiananmen seems odd. It just doesn't fit.
Group suicides under the pretense
of "going to heaven" or similar reasons are always low-key. Consider the
Heaven's Gate cult, which in 1997 members ate poison-laced pudding and went
to sleep in their compound. Suicide for these
reasons is generally done in a comfortable area away from public
view.
Here are two real cases
of self-immolation in China:
Case #1: On
September 15, 2003, in front of Tiananmen's Jinshui Bridge, a farmer named Zhu
Zhengliang from Qingyang County, Anhui Province, poured gasoline on himself and
then set himself on fire. The reason he gave for doing this was because his
house was torn down against his wishes, and his legal case never was processed
with justice.
Case #2: On
October1, 2003, Yang Peiquan, who came from Gongan County, Jingzhou City, Hubei
Province to appeal his grievance, burned himself with gasoline near the
southeast corner of Tiananmen Square at the Memorial Tower. Yang was a
49-year-old worker who had been laid off.
Several self-immolation
cases such as these have been reported in the news. But
because of low-profile media reporting, most Chinese probably have never heard
of them.[29] The difference in the
state-run media's handling of true self-immolation cases and
the staged "self-immolation" is huge.
38. "Self-Immolators" Immediately Renounce Falun
Gong
Why would
the "self-immolators" go so far as to burn themselves to death
in the name of Falun Gong, and then immediately renounce the practice when
they survived?
39. Falun Gong Denies Any
Role
Falun Gong
practitioners strive to be truthful in every aspect of their
lives. Much of Falun Gong is out in the open: All of the books and music,
experience sharing articles in which practitioners share their shortcomings and
how to improve on them, and all activities are free of charge and available to
the public either on the Internet or in person. In Mainland China,
practitioners have risked everything to go to Tiananmen Square to
appeal by unfurling banners, or to clarify the facts of Falun Gong and the
persecution through various means-- even through intercepting satellite
transmission to broadcast the facts over Chinese television. All of
this is has been affirmed.
The
fact that Falun Gong representatives immediately denied any role in the
self-immolation speaks loudly in and of itself.
40. Combination of Participants Ideal for
Stirring Up Public
The people involved in the self-immolation appear to have
been carefully chosen, that is, a man, a young woman, an older woman, and
a little girl. The little girl, while being carried to an
ambulance, cried out heartbreakingly for her mother, while the carrier stopped
for a moment to allow them to be taped.
The event immediately raised public sympathy and
vilified Falun Gong. People all over China were upset. Consequences
included gangs of villagers going to practitioners' homes, forcing their way in,
and demanding that the people denounce Falun Gong. Some robbed and
beat people. The police didn't interfere if the victims were reported to be
Falun Gong practitioners.[30]
41. CCTV Reporter Acknowledges That Part of the
Self-Immolation Scene Was Staged
Li Yuqiang is a senior reporter for
CCTV's news show Focal Point. Since the persecution
began in 1999 she has been responsible for producing programs defaming Falun
Gong, including several interview programs.[31]
In early 2002, as Li was
interviewing people at the Tuanhe Labor Camp about the self-immolation, one
Falun Gong prisoner, Zhao Ming, raised the matter of the Sprite bottle. Li
responded to the quirk candidly, saying, “We shot that scene after the fact. If
it looks suspicious we’ll stop showing it.”[32] She then tried to argue that the scene
was arranged in an attempt to prove to the audience that Falun Gong
practitioners conducted the self-immolation.[33]
What was CCTV doing shooting
scenes “after the fact”? Why would Wang Jindong—someone supposedly so crazed and
zealous as to set himself on fire—cooperate so fully with CCTV’s wish to
re-shoot the scene?
42. Organizations
Outside China Publicly Acknowledge that the Self-Immolation Was
Staged
On August 14, 2001, at a meeting of
the United Nations the NGO International Education Development made a formal
statement which declared, “The Chinese regime points to a supposed
self-immolation incident in Tiananmen Square on January 23, 2001, as proof to
slander Falun Gong. However, we have obtained a video of that incident that
in our view proves that this event was staged by the government. We have
copies of this video here and those interested can pick up a copy.”
The United
Nations, Reporters without Borders, Amnesty International, The Washington Post, and The
Epoch Times have all acknowledged holes in the official story.
In 2002, a documentary
deconstructing the CCTV video footage, False Fire,
received an honorary award at the 51st Columbus International Film Festival.[34]
43. "Urge to Self-Immolate" After Reading Articles By
Falun Gong's Founder
CCP media claimed that the "self-immolators" were urged to
set themselves on fire after reading articles written by the founder of Falun
Gong. This doesn't make sense. There are so many Falun Gong
practitioners around the world who read the same
articles.
Practitioners have worked tirelessly to clarify
the facts and expose the persecution in China so that people who are
deceived by the rumors and lies can understand the beauty of Falun Gong. How
could the "self-immolators" disregard the fact that countless practitioners
are being persecuted, and then to burn themselves in public, creating more
excuses for Jiang Zemin's regime to persecute Falun Gong?
Of course, since the persecution
began, all Falun Gong books have been banned, and no one in Mainland China has
easy access to verify that this is false. The CCP has
never published articles written by Falun Gong's founder to support their
claim.[35]
44. Popular Novel Banned Immediately Following the
Incident
Soon after the immolation incident, a
popular novel that had been published ten years prior, Yellow Disaster (Huang Huo), was, curiously enough,
banned throughout China. It would seem the supposed self-immolation on Tiananmen
Square bore surprising resemblance to an episode in Yellow Disaster. In chapter two of the novel someone
pays off terminally ill persons to burn themselves, and then uses the incident
to frame opponents in a politically-motivated persecution. Could Jiang and
company have drawn inspiration from the incident in Yellow Disaster? Why the sudden ban?[36]
45. Jiang Zemin Needed An Event to Set Public Opinion
Against Falun Gong
By
mid-2000, almost a year had passed since then-president Jiang Zemin
launched his persecution of Falun Gong. Things weren’t going as Jiang had
pictured, however (i.e., people condemning Falun Gong en masse.) Many a lie
had been spread, many a scathing critique had been written, and
countless “study sessions” had been organized, yet people just weren’t
buying into it. They had seen too many mass political movements before;
they knew what Jiang was up to. Many people were of the belief that: “If
Jiang did not like Falun Gong, then let him go through all of that—just don’t
get us tangled up in it.”
With
the exception of a few regions that implemented Party policies closely, leaders
in many regions—including even 6-10 Office staff [Agency responsible for
implementing the persecution of Falun Gong]—were none too enthused. One
former 6-10 officer who was in charge of the Hangu district in Tianjin city has
described the situation at that time saying:
To be honest, the people who were in charge
at the local level didn’t like to do this [kind of persecuting], as the police
there lived in close proximity to ordinary people. For example, maybe you
would live right next door to me, and we would see each other all the
time. How could I arrest you, then? And this was Hangu—a small place
by the sea with only four police stations. Whoever you arrested was bound
to be an acquaintance. A police officer’s wife might work together in the
same work unit as the wife of the person he arrests, for example. The
police at the police station may live on the same street that they’re in
charge of, with the person they arrest living right downstairs below
them. We were all neighbors and acquaintances. If people like that don’t
do anything corrupt or violate the law, could you have the heart to arrest
them?
At the Fifth Plenary Session of the
Fifteenth CCP National Congress, held October 9 to 11, 2000, in Beijing, several
members of the CCP’s Central Committee called into question the persecution of
Falun Gong. They asked for an explanation of the campaign. Among the seven
members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo, four members—more than
half—namely, Zhu Rongji, Hu Jintao, Li Ruihuan, and Wei Jianxing, opposed
continuation of the persecution of Falun Gong. Meanwhile the former head of the
People’s Congress, Qiao Shi, expressed that he was disturbed by the killing of
innocent Falun Gong adherents. He returned from some distance to Beijing and
went to Tiananmen Square to see firsthand the beating and arrest of adherents
that he had heard about. The Premier of the State Council, Zhu Rongji, went in
person to the fifth department of the Beijing Public Safety Bureau and urged
public safety officials, “Don’t make it any harder than it already is for Falun
Gong practitioners!”
Jiang racked his brain to come up with
ways to set Falun Gong up as an “evil cult.” On October 25, 1999, in an
interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro, Jiang
referred to Falun Gong for the first time as an “evil cult” (xiejiao). That same year at the Asia-Pacific Economic
Co-operation (APEC) Summit meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, Jiang personally
handed the president of the United States and other leaders booklets attempting
to discredit Falun Gong. He even seized upon the opportunity of an interviewed
with CBS’s Mike Wallace to libel Falun Gong, claiming, misleadingly, “Thousands
of Falun Gong practitioners have committed suicide.” Media in mainland China
didn’t dare to report this specific part of the interview, fearing Jiang would
be seen through and ridiculed. Jiang thus summoned Luo Gan for many a secret
meeting, plotting how to incite public hatred toward the still-popular
meditation group. After repeated failures to entrap Falun
Gong practitioners, Jiang sought out Luo Gan several times to secretly discuss
ways to create a bombshell that would demonize Falun Gong. Luo gave Jiang a
guarantee that this time, he would succeed. Luo started off by sowing some seeds
of misinformation. On December 29, 2000, the government-run Xinhua News Agency
ran—acting on directives from the Central Committee’s 6-10 office—an anonymous
news story that told of a “failed group suicide” by Falun Gong members. The
vague report failed to disclose the names of any persons allegedly involved, the
details of the event, or even its location. The report claimed that the
adherents had been “instigated” and plotted a collective suicide sometime near
New Year’s Day. The report was meant to prepare readers for what was to come. A month later, once footage of the Self-Immolation was
broadcast, the disturbing, tragic scenes stirred up tremendous anger in
China. Animosity toward Falun Gong surged, with most people quickly forgetting
all the good they had come to see in the practice and its practitioners. People
forgot what they had seen with their own eyes and experienced for themselves, as
if the government’s claims were more reliable. Such was the emotional power of
the images CCTV put together. The state’s propaganda machinery had now emerged
from its period of lull with a vengeance. Personalities of every sort appeared
on state-run television to condemn Falun Gong. As they spoke CCTV would insert
periodically, for added effect, a chilling scene or two from the immolations. At Jiang’s instruction all media outlets in China, large or
small, thus launched a new campaign of criticism targeting Falun Gong. The
general office of the CCP’s Central Committee issued a notice declaring that a
nationwide political movement be launched to “further expose and criticize the
true face of the Falun Gong evil cult.” In the four days following January 31
(the day of the immolation), Xinhua News Agency and China News Agency published
online 107 and 64 articles, respectively, criticizing and condemning Falun Gong.
State-run media claimed that “the public” in at least fourteen provinces,
municipalities, and regions had come forward in droves to denounce the Falun
Gong. Leaders in the Party, government, and military along with civic groups of
every variety were required to show support for the Central Committee’s “wise
decision.” Local-level organizations were required, meanwhile, to organize
“criticism meetings,” big and small, to condemn “the unspeakable crimes of the
evil cult.” Daily CCTV broadcast interviews with people from various walks of
life who showed support, replaying the segments often enough to ensure no eyes
or ears were missed. The goal was to have everyone come to hate Falun Gong.[36]
46. Jiang and Luo
Tried to Trap Falun Gong Practitioners in May 1999
Back in May
of 1999 when the persecution of Falun Gong was still in its preparatory stage,
Jiang and Luo on one occasion planned a chilling “special action.” First the
Central Committee’s General Office issued a document claiming that ten thousand
Falun Gong practitioners were planning to commit “group suicide” in Xiangshan,
Beijing’s western suburb. The document was then purposefully leaked to overseas
media for dissemination. Then local police, plainclothes police, and
infiltrators spread the word to Falun Gong adherents that there would be a large
“gathering” in Xiangshan. Along with this army troops were dispatched to
Xiangshan, and armed riot police were positioned there in hiding. The whole
thing was an elaborate trap. Falun Gong practitioners were meant to be lured to
there, to Xiangshan, where they would be murdered. The scene would then be
portrayed in state-run media propaganda as a tragic “collective suicide” or
“failed suicide.” Jiang would then have grounds to label Falun Gong an “evil
cult,” and efforts to frame and suppress the group could expand with ease. But
as it turned out, not a single Falun Gong practitioner went to Xiangshan. Three
times between May 1 and September 9 police and plainclothes police changed the
“gathering date” they passed on to Falun Gong practitioners, hoping for better
results. Nothing came of the ploy in the end.[36]
47. Jiang Overreacts Even Further After Video
Deconstruction is Aired
On the night of March 5, 2002, the regular programming of
eight cable TV stations was interrupted and replaced with a forty-five minute
broadcast about Falun Gong. The broadcast included documentaries such as Self-immolation or Deception? and Falun Dafa’s Spread Around the World. The lies the CCP
propaganda machine had been telling for years were thus discredited in less than
an hour. The videos revealed Falun Gong’s rapid growth in mainland China before
the crackdown along with its current spreading in over sixty countries; it
highlighted the truth about Falun Gong and its noble teachings on truthfulness,
compassion, and tolerance. Hundreds of thousands of people in Changchun city
were astonished as the documentary Self-immolation or
Deception? analyzed the footage of the incident from CCTV in slow motion,
pointing out its inconsistencies one by one. The next day, the slow-motion
sequence of Liu Chunling being struck over the head by a police officer while
she was on fire became the talk of the town; discussion of the matter could be
heard at the office, on the bus, in school, or at the supermarket, demonstrating
the impact on people’s minds of a lie being exposed.
Jiang was furious when he heard the news about the TV
tapping that night. He reportedly shook from anger for several minutes. He then
reacted by pounding his fist on the table and shouting, “Send for Zeng Qinghong
and Luo Gan immediately!” Jiang’s secretary, though already accustomed to
his boss’s temper, had never seen Jiang so mad and violent. Fully aware of the
seriousness of the matter, the secretary picked up the phone, his hand
trembling.
Following
suggestions by Zeng and Luo, Jiang ordered that level II war preparedness be
declared in the Shenyang Military Region and that level I awareness be
established in the Changchun Military Region and among the armed police of Jilin
province. Luo ordered the Public Security Office of Jilin and the Public
Security Bureau of Changchun to investigate the TV tapping and crack the case
within a short timeframe. As Luo was on the phone, telling his men what to do,
Jiang commanded:
“Tell all the police to shoot to kill any Falun Gong practitioners who were involved in the TV tapping. Kill them without exception! I guarantee that any officer who kills Falun Gong practitioners will not be held responsible. This case has to be resolved within a week, or else the Party chief in Changchun city and the police chiefs at multiple levels in the city will have to step down.”[37]
48. Liu Standing, Three Police Officers Using Fire
Extinguishers Simultaneously
When one is on fire, the
person falls down quickly and is unable to move too far due to severe
pain caused by the burning fire. Yet the CCTV footage
shows that Liu Chunling, on fire, was still staggering
forward. Only if the camera were in position before Liu
was set on fire would CCTV be able to capture this. In the same shot,
three policemen are seen using fire-extinguishers to put out the fire
simultaneously. That is to say, the three policemen would have had to
first react to the fire, get extinguishers from the car[s], race for tens of
meters to get to the fire (all in less than 10 seconds); and all three policemen
from varying distances would have to arrive at the scene virtually
simultaneously. Yet the TV footage shows the nearest patrol car about
10 meters away, with other patrol cars much further away.
It is rather strange, then,
that the TV footage shows all three of them standing next to the person on fire,
in their respective positions, timed it just right to start extinguishing the
fire together, and put out the fire in two seconds. One would
expect the first policeman to arrive at the scene to put out the fire
first, to be followed by others from different directions and different
distances away.[38]
49. At Least Two of the Self-Immolators Held Under
House Arrest
Two of the self-immolators, Chen Guo
and her mother Hao Huijun, have been held under house arrest at the Beijiao
Welfare Home in Kaifeng City. Zhan Jingui, a retired officer from the Kaifeng
City Police Department is in charge of guarding the two. The police watch Chen
Guo and her mother around the clock to prevent any contact with the outside
world. The police have privately revealed that the government is trying to take
care of the two and not let them die, so they can be used to attack and
discredit Falun Gong.[39]
50. Liu Yunfang Arrested Even Though He Never Set
Himself On Fire
It was mentioned in the
Xinhua report of February 28, 2001, "Liu Yunfang, who considered himself to be a
'Falun Dafa veteran practitioner,' and who directly organized the
self-immolation incident on Tiananmen Square, was not as 'attached'.... In
accordance with their prearranged agreement, they set fire to themselves to
achieve 'consummation' on Tiananmen Square, timed to coincide with the Spring
Festival. But Liu didn't even pour a drop of gasoline on his body." In Beijing
Public Security Bureau Detention Center, when a reporter asked him about this,
Liu Yunfang scoffed at the question and tried to defend the inconsistencies of
his actions and statements, and saying, "I did not set myself on fire because
the 'master' wanted me to stay. He wanted me to live so that I could speak."
This is another
self-contradiction. If he didn't pour even a drop of gasoline on his body, then
why did the police arrest him?[40]
51. BBC Invited For
"Arranged Interview"
In BBC and Chinese official reports, on April 3, 2002,
the Chinese government arranged 12 Chinese and International media to interview
Wang Jindong and others. BBC's report "Arranged Interview" stated, "The Chinese
government had always refused any International media to interview on the
self-immolation event, yet all of a sudden, foreign reporters were arranged to
interview the self-immolation survivors." BBC's special reporter also said that
the Chinese government's intention of this arranged interview was obviously an
effort to prove the legitimacy of the government's persecution towards Falun
Gong.[41]
Foreign
Journalists have never had real freedom to interview practitioners, because all
the interviewees are arranged by the CCP. The BBC quoted Reporters Without Borders in its report on December 4,
2001:
"Since the eradication campaign against Falun
Gong was launched by the authorities, foreign journalists have systematically
been hindered in their work on this topic. Foreign photographers and cameramen
are prevented from working on and around Tiananmen Square where hundreds of
Falun Gong followers have demonstrated for the passed years. According to
Reporters Without Borders' estimations, at least 50 representatives of
international media have been questioned. Some of them have been beaten by the
police. The correspondents who have tried to cover the banned movement's
activities have been harassed by the security services. Finally, many Falun
Gong followers have been jailed for being interviewed by foreign
journalists."[42]
52. At Least 10
Eyewitness or Other Accounts All Point to the Self-Immolation Being
Staged