31. Further Chinese Reports Contradict
1) According to the January 30th Xinhua article, the so-called self-immolators went to Tiananmen in the morning but could not enter into the square, so they waited around until "in the afternoon when the square reopened" after which they walked in and began to set themselves on fire.
Yet in "Wang Jindong's Personal Statement...," Wang states that the group went to someone's house in the morning to fill up the bottles with petrol. They all left the house at 2:30 p.m., 11 minutes before the incident occurred, and took a taxi to Tiananmen.
2) In the January 30th Xinhua article, Wang Jindong's group arrived at Beijing West Station in the morning of January 17th, where Chen Guo picked them up.
Yet in "Wang Jindong's Personal Statement...," Wang says that after arriving in Beijing, the group took a bus to the Central Musical College, where they were picked up by Chen Guo.
3) In the Xinhua Net article "Special Interview with Wang Juan" published April 24th, 2002, Wang Jindong's daughter was known as 'Wang Juan' in the whole article. But in a Xinhua Net article published March 28th, 2001, Wang Jindong's daughter was always named as 'Wang Juanjuan.'
For news reports, the names of the people involved is one of the most critical elements in news. Every professional reporter will pay great attention to the accuracy of such fundamental information. The March 28th report was more than 4600 words long, and the name Wang Juanjuan appeared 37 times. It is highly unlikely that the different references to Wang Juan and Wang Juanjuan were due to typographical errors.
4) In the April 24th article, Wang Jindong's wife and daughter had found the staff people warm and nice during their detention period at the end of 2000, and for this reason, they were "transformed" (gave up practising Falun Gong).
In the March 28th article, more than 4000 words were written to describe how Henan Women's Labour Camp was able to finally "transform" the mother and daughter after "much hard work."
According to an article from BBC Chinese Net, published April 5th, 2002, "Wang Jindong's daughter said she decided to give up Falun Gong only 10 minutes after entering the labour camp."
Not only are there discrepancies on how the mother and daughter gave up Falun Gong, but also where they were held.
32. Xinhua's Report Provides Vivid Details from No Witnesses
The January 30th, 2001 article was Xinhua's first detailed report on the self-immolation. The article gives very concrete and vivid description of the self-immolation scenes. For example:
"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 Heroes' 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.
33. 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 1st, 2001.
34. Four Years Later, v Brings Out the "Self-Immolation" to Distract from the Death of Zhao Ziyang
On January 17th, 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, Chinese state-run 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 next day, January 18th, 2005, Xinhua News Agency began re-broadcasting coverage of the "self-immolation" from four years prior. The CCP not only aired coverage in China, but also influenced overseas media to report on it. By January 21st, 2005, the Associated Press (AP) had published a biased view of the CCP's version of the "self-immolation" and its aftermath. The article uncritically accepted the propaganda and reported it as fact 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?
35. No Falun Gong Practitioners Confirmed to Have Comitted Suicide Before or After the Incident
From 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 estimated 70-100 million people practising Falun Gong in 1998, and with China's suicide rate of 23 per 100,000, it should not have been 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. 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 a 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 about 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.
Perhaps the most telling is the behavior of Falun Gong practitioners in other areas outside of Mainland China. Thousands of practitioners live in over 80 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.
36. The "Self-Immolation" Does Not Match the Profile of Other Self-Immolations in History
Self-immolation is very unconventional as it takes a long time and is 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-immolators" 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 Square seems odd.
Group suicides under the pretense of "going to heaven" or similar reasons are extremely rare, and 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 an area away from public view.
Here are two real cases of self-immolation in China:
Case #1: On September 15th, 2003, in front of Tiananmen's Jinshui Bridge, a farmer named Zhu Zhengliang from Qingyang County, Anhui Province, poured petrol 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 October 1st, 2003, Yang Peiquan, who came from Gongan County, Jingzhou City, Hubei Province to appeal his grievance, burned himself with petrol 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. The difference in the state-run media's handling of true self-immolation cases and the staged "self-immolation" is huge.
37. "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?
38. "Self-Immolation" in Stark Contrast to the Selfless Actions of Practitioners
Falun Gong practitioners strive to be truthful in every aspect of their lives. All of the Falun Gong 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 to the government by unfurling banners, or to clarify the facts about Falun Gong and the persecution through various peaceful means.
Were a practitioner to set themselves on fire, it would adversely effect the efforts of practitioners who are trying to awaken the consciences of people in Mainland China. This is probably why the event was staged the way it was: In the initial years of the persecution, hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners were traveling to Beijing every day to appeal to the government at Tiananmen, and risked arrest and detention. These selfless acts were awakening the general public and giving citizens hope for the future under a totalitarian regime.
By staging a "self-immolation" in the way they did and at the location they did, the CCP directly challenged and put a negative connotation on the efforts of these practitioners.
39. Falun Gong Denies Any Role
The fact that Falun Gong representatives immediately denied any role in the self-immolation speaks volumes 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.
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