From July 22, 1999 to the end of 2002, tens of thousand of Falun Gong practitioners had portesed in the center of Beijing--Tiananmen Square. None of these protests was more shocking, revealing, controversial, or tragic than the self-immolation incident on January 23, 2001. At 230 in the afternoon, a CNN film crew witnessed the following horrifying scene:

"A man sit [SIC] down on the pavement just northeast of the Peoples' Heroes Monument at the center of the square. After pouring gasoline on his clothes he set himself on fire. Police ran to the man and extinguished the flames. Moments later four more people set themselves alight as military police detained the CNN crew, which had been taping the events. As flames spread through their clothing the four raised their hands above their heads and staggered about. One of the four, a man, was detained and driven away in a police van. He appeared to have serious burns on his face, and CNN producer Lisa Weaver said she could smell burning flesh as the van slowly passed."1

While the four policemen were frantically trying to put out the fire on the burning man, he shouted "Falun Dafa is the fundamental law of all."2 The other four protesters were women; one of them died on the scene.

The news shocked the country. January 23, 2001 was New Year's Eve on the Chinese lunar calendar. On this most celebrated holiday, the Chinese usually get together with their families and excitedly prepare a feast of delicacies. So news of the self-immolation, on the sacred square where a celebration ceremony was going to be held the very next day, outraged the public. The horrifying scene of smoke and fire swallowing these self-immolators extinguished the joy of the holiday; people instinctively felt that it would bring bad luck in the New Year.

Within 24 hours of the incident, the Falun Gong leadership issued a press statement denying any of its members were involved in the incident "The Xinhua News Agency's report that five members of the Falun Gong meditation group set themselves on fire Tuesday in China's Tiananmen Square is yet another attempt by the PRC regime to defame the practice of Falun Gong…. This so-called suicide attempt on Tiananmen Square has nothing to do with Falun Gong practitioners because the teachings of Falun Gong prohibit any form of killing. Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of the practice, has explicitly stated that suicide is a sin."3

Who were these people and what drove them to such tragedy? As reported by the Chinese media these practitioners came from Kaifeng city. The male was Wang Jindong. The four females were two mother-and-daughter pairs Chen Guo, a nineteen-year-old college student and her mother Hao Huijun; Liu Siying, a twelve-year-old girl, and her mother Liu Chunling. Liu died instantly and her daughter died of her injuries two months later. Two more practitioners, Liu Baorong and Liu Yunfang were stopped before they could set fire to themselves. All but the twelve-year-old girl had protested the ban in Tiananmen Square previously, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.4

Liu Yunfang was the chief instigator and organizer of the incident. In August, 2000 he saw a holy scene during meditation his "Buddha body" appeared after he set himself on fire at Tiananmen Square. Wang Jindong, the secondary organizer, also was enlightened in December, 2000. He told others that only by self-immolation on Tiananmen Square on New Year's Eve could consummation be reached. They went to Beijing seven days before the incident. Chen Guo, who was studying music, once asked whether it hurts when one is on fire. Wang assured her that "pain is the feeling of ordinary people. Cultivators will not feel pain, and it will only take a second for them to rise into heaven."5

A year after the incident, an interview with the foreign press was organized in April, 2002, after the survivors had somewhat recovered. Jeremy Page from Reuters met the two surviving females, who were still being cared for in a hospital. Their injuries were horrific Chen Guo, now only 20, had a face of blotchy grafted skin with no nose and no ears, one eye was covered by a flap of skin. She had lost both her hands. Her mother had also lost her ears and nose, and both eyes were covered with skin grafts. She too had no hands. When asked why they set themselves on fire she said "We wanted to show the government that Falun Gong was good."6 Wang Jindong was interviewed in jail. The fire had left him with scarred, leathery cheeks and blackened fingers.

For their crime of organizing this tragedy that claimed two lives, Liu Yunfang was sentenced to life in prison, Wang Jindong received a fifteen-year sentence and a Beijing practitioner who provided them lodging and helped in the preparation received a seven-year sentence. The unimaginable tragedy of two mothers setting their young daughters on fire, the death of the twelve-year-old and the gruesome permanent injuries on the survivors unleashed an emotional outpouring. The Chinese media used this incident to start another round of attacks on the Falun Gong.

Ever since the immolation was reported, the Falun Gong has conducted a campaign to deny that these people were practitioners. Later, they even called it a staged incident, a set-up aimed at smearing the group.7 Although it has never provided any creditable arguments, a simple denial has worked in its favor. When reporting the incident many Western media have presented the claims of both sides. Here is a report by CNN.com, for example "Beijing has intensified its clamp-down on the group after the incident despite Falun Gong leaders denying its members were involved in the incident."8 Since the Chinese government has little credibility in the West and the Falun Gong is a persecuted meditation group, people who know nothing about the details might easily accept the group's claim.

But the Falun Gong's denial of its practitioners—a betrayal really—must have been as devastating to the survivors as the terrible physical pain they suffered. Chalk up one more tragic, cruel betrayal to this group!
 
1. "Tiananmen tense after fiery protests," CNN.com January 24, 2001

2. "Another monstrous crime of the Falun Gong cult," (only available in Chinese), Xinhua, 1302001.

3. The Falun Gong organization, Press Statement, 1232001.

4. Philip P. Pan, "One-Way Trip to the End in Beijing," International Herald Tribune, February 5, 2001.

5. "Another monstrous crime of the Falun Gong cult," (only available in Chinese), Xinhua, 1302001.

6. Jeremy Page, Reuters, "Survivors say China Falun Gong immolations reall," 4042002.

7. "The Staged ‘Self-Immolation' Incident on Tiananmen Square," Falun Gong information center.

8. "Hong Kong warns Falun Gong," CNN.com February 8, 2001. 

Original text from: http://exposingtheFalun Gong.org/self-immolation.htm