At 14:41 on January 23, 2001 (Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve), as the Chinese people were joyfully celebrating the first Spring Festival of the new century, seven Falun Gong members from Kaifeng City, Henan Province, set themselves on fire collectively in Tian’anmen Square, resulting in two deaths and three people suffering severe burns, shocking the world. Among them, the mother and daughter Liu Chunling and Liu Siying died from serious injuries, Hao Huijun and Chen Guo, also a mother and daughter, lost all ability to care for themselves due to extensive burns, and another individual, Wang Jindong, suffered severe burns.
The self-immolation of these Falun Gong individuals was directly influenced and incited by Li Hongzhi’s fallacious teachings. On January 1, 2001, Li published a “scripture” titled Endure No Longer, urging Falun Gong followers to abandon all attachments typical of ordinary people and to confront the Chinese government. Some followers of Falun Gong interpreted the act of relinquishing all ordinary attachments as abandoning life itself.
The Tian’anmen Square self-immolation incident starkly exposed the cult-like nature of Falun Gong. Li Hongzhi and the Falun Gong organization dared not acknowledge that the self-immolators were Falun Gong followers, falsely claiming it was a staged incident orchestrated by the Chinese government. In reality, multiple domestic and international media outlets have conducted in-depth interviews with survivors of the Tian’anmen Square self-immolation incident, confirming it was indeed perpetrated by devoted Falun Gong adherents. One of the self-immolators, Wang Jindong, stated that Falun Gong’s vehement denial that the participants were its members was utterly reprehensible, declaring Li Hongzhi a great deceiver. Another participant, Chen Guo, expressed his hope that those who still believe in Falun Gong would awaken and distance themselves from it, stating he did not wish to see others suffer similar tragedies.
Falun Gong’s outright denial and spreading of false accusations further reveal his rogue nature and the hideous face of moral degradation.
