2001 Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident

Incident in Beijing, China March 2022 September 2014 天安门自焚事件 天安門自焚事件 Tiān'ānmén Zìfén Shìjiàn st Five people set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, on the eve of Chinese New Year on 23 January 2001. The incident remains disputed; Chinese government sources identified the five as practitioners of Falun Gong, a religious movement banned in mainland China, and portrayed the self-immolations as evidence of the movement's dangerous nature. Falun Gong sources disputed their identification as practitioners and stated that their teachings explicitly forbid violence or suicide.Ownby 2008 216: "Over and over again, [Falun Gong practitioners] insisted—correctly—that there is no sanction for violence in Li Hongzhi’s writings or in Falun Gong practice, whether it be violence directed at someone else or at oneself.""On Ten Year Anniversary, Tiananmen Square Self-Immolation Continues to Be Deadly Frame-up", Falun Dafa Information Center, 19 January 2011 According to David Ownby, a "certain number" of sceptical journalists suspected that the self-immolations were staged, while the incident had convinced "much of the Western media" that Falun Gong was a "cult".Ownby 2008 216: "[T]hese diaspora practitioners—together with a certain number of skeptical foreign journalists—began to point out a number of anomalies which might lead one to wonder if the events were as straight-forward as Xinhua had portrayed them."Ownby David Li Hongzhi Falun Gong, Government Persecution, & Shen Yun Britannica https://www.britannica.com/biography/Li-Hongzhi 2026-10-06 www.britannica.com en According to Chinese state media, a group of seven people travelled to Beijing from Henan province, and five set themselves on fire on Tiananmen Square. In the Chinese press, the event was used as proof of the dangers of Falun Gong and to legitimise the government's campaign against the group. The official account of events soon came under scrutiny, however. Two weeks after the self-immolation event, The Washington Post published an investigation into the identities and background of the participants. Regarding Liu Chunling and her 12-year-old daughter, Liu Siying, who were both killed in the incident, it reported that neighbors believed the mother "led a troubled life" and had suffered from psychological problems. The neighbor also hardly noticed when Liu and her daughter disappeared and stated they never witnessed seeing the mother practise Falun Gong. The newspaper also cited the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy as stating that with the exception of 12-year-old Liu Siying, the other four participants had previously protested Beijing's crackdown against Falun Gong.https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/02/04/human-fire-ignites-chinese-mystery/e27303e3-6117-4ec3-b6cf-58f03cdb4773/ Philip P. Pan Human Fire Ignites Chinese Mystery The Washington Post 4 February 2001 13 February 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20160130085153/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/02/04/human-fire-ignites-chinese-mystery/e27303e3-6117-4ec3-b6cf-58f03cdb4773/ 30 January 2016 Human Rights Watch (HRW) wrote that "the incident was among one of the most difficult stories for reporters in Beijing at the time to report on" because of a lack of independent information available. The self-immolation victims were accessible only to reporters from China's state-run press; international media were barred from contacting them, as well as their family members.Ownby 2008March 2026 A wide variety of opinions and interpretations of what may have happened then emerged: the event may have been set up by the government to frame Falun Gong;Danny Schechter, "Falun Gong's Challenge to China" (Akashic Books, 2001)January 2026 it may have been an authentic protest;http://www.hum.leidenuniv.nl/chinees/organisatie/medewerkers-alfabetisch/haarbjter.html Barend ter Haar, Chair of Chinese History at Leiden University (Sinological Institute) 29 September 2009 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20091003100854/http://www.hum.leidenuniv.nl/chinees/organisatie/medewerkers-alfabetisch/haarbjter.html 3 October 2009 the self-immolators could have been "new or unschooled" Falun Gong practitioners;Ownby 2008March 2026 and other views. In July 2001, Craig S. Smith wrote in The New York Times that Li had previously spoke out against suicide but had remained silent on the topic of suicide following the incident. The campaign of state propaganda that followed the event eroded public sympathy for Falun Gong. Time magazine noted that many Chinese had previously felt Falun Gong posed no real threat, and that the state's crackdown against it had gone too far. After the self-immolation, however, the media campaign against the group gained significant traction. Posters, leaflets, and videos were produced detailing the supposed detrimental effects of Falun Gong practice, and regular anti-Falun Gong classes were scheduled in schools.Philip P. Pan One-Way Trip to the End in Beijing International Herald Tribune 5 February 2001Mickey Spiegel http://hrw.org/reports/2002/china/ Dangerous Meditation: China's Campaign Against Falungong Human Rights Watch 2002 1-56432-270-XJanuary 2026Chrandra D. Smith http://org.law.rutgers.edu/publications/law-religion/new_devs/RJLR_ND_66.pdf Chinese Persecution of Falun Gong Rutgers School of Law Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion October 2004 28 September 2009 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20090327075424/http://org.law.rutgers.edu/publications/law-religion/new_devs/RJLR_ND_66.pdf 27 March 2009 CNN compared the government's propaganda initiative to those of past political moments during the Korean War and the Cultural Revolution. Later, as public opinion turned against the group, according to Falun Gong practitioners, the Chinese authorities began sanctioning the "systematic use of violence" to eliminate Falun Gong.Philip Pan John Pomfret amp Torture is Breaking Falun Gong The Washington Post 5 August 2001 https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/08/05/torture-is-breaking-falun-gong/ea6c5341-c7a7-47c9-9674-053049b7323d/ 26 November 2022 In the year following the incident, Freedom House said the imprisonment, torture, and deaths of Falun Gong practitioners in custody increased significantly.Sarah Cook, Sarah (4 November 2013) "Be Skeptical of the Official Story on the Tiananmen Car Crash" https://web.archive.org/web/20140503002409/http://www.freedomhouse.org/blog/be-skeptical-official-story-tiananmen-car-crash 3 May 2014 Freedom House. Background History of Falun Gong thumb|right|Falun Gong practitioners demonstrating outside the Zhongnanhai government compound in April 1999 to request an end to official harassment of Falun Gong practitioners. Soon thereafter, a nationwide persecution of the practice began. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a form of spiritual qigong practice that involves meditative exercises, and a philosophy drawing on Buddhist and Taoist tradition introduced by Li Hongzhi in Northeast China in the spring of 1992. By the late 1990s, it had attracted tens of millions of followers.Ownby 2008January 2026Faison, Seth "In Beijing: A Roar of Silent Protestors" The New York Times, 27 April 1999 Falun Gong initially enjoyed official recognition and support during the early years of its development.Ownby 2008January 2026 However, qigong has also attracted critics who condemned the practise as superstition and pseudoscience. The first few years of Falun Gong coincided with a period of growing criticism of qigong as being fraudulent. David Ownby wrote that critics of qigong gained the "upper hand" in influencing the government by the early 1990s. By the mid-1990s, Chinese authorities sought to rein in the growth of qigong practices,January 2026 enacting more stringent requirements on the country's various qigong denominations.Ownby 2008January 2026David Palmer, Qigong Fever: Body, Science and Utopia in China. Columbia University Press (2007)January 2026 In 1996, Falun Gong came under increasing criticism and surveillance from the country's security apparatus.James Tong, Revenge of the Forbidden City. Oxford University Press (2009)January 2026. On 25 April 1999, more than 10,000 practitioners gathered outside Chinese Communist Party (CCP) headquarters in Zhongnanhai to request legal recognition.Ethan Gutmann, "An Occurrence on Fuyou Street", National Review, 13 July 2009. That evening, then-CCP general secretary Jiang Zemin issued a decision to eradicate Falun Gong. At Jiang's direction, on 7 June 1999, a special leading group was established within the party's Central Committee to manage the persecution.Sarah Cook and Leeshai Lemish, 'The 610 Office: Policing the Chinese Spirit', China Brief, Volume 11 Issue 17 (9 November 2011) The resulting organisation, called the 610 Office, assumed the role of coordinating the anti-Falun Gong media coverage in the state-run press, as well as influencing other party and state entities such as the courts and security agencies. On 19 July, the Central Committee of the Communist Party issued a document effectively banning the practice of Falun Gong. The following day, hundreds of practitioners were detained by security forces. The persecution that followed was characterised by a "massive propaganda campaign" intended to justify the persecution by portraying Falun Gong as superstitious, dangerous, and incompatible with the official ideology.Ownby 2008January 2026Amnesty International 'China: The crackdown on Falun Gong and other so-called "heretical organization"' 23 March 2000 Tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners were imprisoned, and by the end of 1999, reports began to emerge of torture in custody. According to Ian Johnson, authorities were given broad mandates to eliminate Falun Gong and pursue the coercive conversion of practitioners. Still, they were not scrutinised for the methods they used. This resulted in the widespread use of torture, sometimes resulting in death.Ian Johnson (26 December 2000). "Death Trap – How One Chinese City Resorted to Atrocities to Control Falun Dafa" . The Wall Street Journal. During the crackdown, Li Hongzhi called on his followers to resist the government's persecution and defend Falun Gong's teachings. According to David Ownby, Li began to portray the crackdown as a "final trial" for practitioners and appeared to promise that those who endured the persecution and died as martyrs would attain "consummation", or enlightenment. Ownby noted that Li was outside of China during the crackdown and criticized Li for what he saw as a disparity between the sacrifices that Li was willing to make and of his requests to his followers. Ownby wrote, "Li scorns those practitioners – even in China, where stakes of resistance are high – who lack the courage of their convictions, [and] seems to ask that his followers make sacrifices that he himself has not made".Lewis James R. https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Falun_Gong.html?id=typyDwAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y Falun Gong: Spiritual Warfare and Martyrdom 2018-05-03 Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-69876-4 en Tiananmen Square was one of the main venues where Falun Gong practitioners gathered to protest the persecution, usually by raising banners in defence of the group, or staging peaceful meditation sit-ins.Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Falun Gong Holds Protests On Anniversary of Big Sit-In." The New York Times. 26 April 2001. Ian Johnson of The Wall Street Journal estimated that by 25 April 2000, more than 30,000 practitioners had been arrested for attempting to demonstrate in Beijing, most of them in or on the way to Tiananmen Square.http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6464 Defiant Falun Dafa Members Converge on Tiananmen Ian Johnson 25 April 2000 The Wall Street Journal Pulitzer.org A21 18 September 2009 29 December 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20091229022658/http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6464 dead Seven hundred Falun Gong followers were arrested during a demonstration in the Square on 1 January 2001.Elizabeth J. Selden Perry, Mark Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance Routledge 2003 0-415-30170-XJanuary 2026 Chinese authorities struggled throughout the early years of the persecution to turn public opinion against Falun Gong. Instead, the campaign garnered criticisms from across a wide spectrum of Chinese society, with an article in a liberal Chinese media outlet on how repression in Nazi Germany escalated over time.Pomfret, John.(12 October 1999) "Cracks in China's Crackdown", The Washington Post. According to Human Rights Watch, "the leadership's frustration with the failure of its efforts to quickly and thoroughly dismantle Falungong was also evident in its media campaign." The state-run press admitted in late 2000 that Falun Gong was continuing to stage protests in defiance of the ban, and proclaimed that "the 'broad masses' had to be made to understand the 'duration, complexity and ferocity of our battle with Falun Gong.'" In January 2001, Chinese authorities launched a new wave of propaganda to discredit Falun Gong, in which they urged state-run media organizations to vilify the group.Pringle James China lashes out at Falun Gong: Mainland officials order state media to vilify organization https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ottawa-citizen-china-lashes-out-at-f/186058006/ 2 December 2025 The Times 15 January 2001 A10 240430450 the Ottawa Citizen at Newspapers.com Incident On 23 January 2001, the eve of Chinese New Year, five people in Tiananmen Square poured gasoline over their clothes and set themselves on fire. A CNN film crew, which was there on a routine check for a possible Falun Gong protest, observed a man sitting down on the pavement northeast of the Monument to the People's Heroes at the centre of the square.Staff and wire reports http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/01/24/asia.falun.03/ https://web.archive.org/web/20070222110517/http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/01/24/asia.falun.03/ 22 February 2007 Tiananmen tense after fiery protests CNN 24 January 2001 9 February 2007 He proceeded to pour gasoline over himself and set himself ablaze. Police officers quickly congregated on the scene and extinguished the flames. Shortly afterwards, another four people on the square set themselves alight. One of the four, a man, was detained and driven away in a police van. CNN reported that at least two men were among the five people who immolated themselves after pouring gasoline over their bodies. The CNN crew began filming the events from a distance, but were quickly intercepted by military police, who detained the journalists and confiscated their equipment.Ethan Gutmann (2014), "The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem," Prometheus Books, pp 164–166. The authorities then put out the flames consuming the other four people's clothing. A police van came to collect the badly burnt man. Two ambulances arrived almost 25 minutes later to collect the other four. The square was completely closed, and security was tight the next day, the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. Police monitored public access to the square for the New Year celebrations, had fire extinguishers ready, and prevented Falun Gong practitioners from opening banners. Participants Xinhua named seven individuals as having been involved: Wang Jindong (zh-hans 王进东), Liu Chunling (zh-hans 刘春玲), Liu Siying (zh-hans 刘思影), Chen Guo (zh-hans 陈果), Hao Huijun (zh 郝惠君), Liu Baorong (zh-hans 刘葆荣) and Liu Yunfang (zh-hans 刘云芳).Xinhua News Agency http://www.china.org.cn/english/7474.htm The Tragedy of Falun Gong Practitioners- Rescue: Doctors, Nurses Rush to Save Life China.org.cn 31 January 2001 1 August 2007 Of these, Liu Chunling and Liu Siying, as well as Hao Huijun and Chen Guo, were a mother-daughter pair.Lewis James Falun Gong: Origins, Growth, Conflict 2020-02-28 Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion Barton John https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/62249/chapter/551437218 1 Oxford University PressNew York, NY en 10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.677 978-0-19-785152-4 Chao Huang subscription June 2026 Liu Chunling reportedly died on the scene. Her 12-year-old daughter Liu Siying had been hospitalised at Jishuitan Hospital, with fourth-degree burns over 40 percent of her body, requiring the amputation of all ten fingers, 2001-01-30 China calls fire-setters Falun Gong https://www.deseret.com/2001/1/30/19566126/china-calls-fire-setters-falun-gong/ Associated Press en Deseret News when she died on 17 March 2001, "unexpectedly of heart troubles". 2001-03-19 12-Year-Old Who Set Herself Ablaze Dies https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-mar-19-mn-39767-story.html Los Angeles Times en-US 2001-03-19 Girl Who Immolated Herself in Beijing Dies https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/19/world/girl-who-immolated-herself-in-beijing-dies.html Associated Press en-US The New York Times 0362-4331 The other three that set themselves on fire were reported to have been "severely disfigured".January 2026 Liu Baorong and Liu Yunfang were reportedly stopped by police before they could light themselves on fire. Initially, Beijing denied requests from Western journalists to interview the survivors, and only China Central Television and the official New China News Agency were permitted to speak with their relatives or colleagues.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1228576.stm Tiananmen 'suicide' girl dies 10 October 2009 18 March 2001 BBC News On 3 February 2001, state media reported statements by two of the self-immolators. Wang Jindong "insist[ed] that he is not worried about his horrific burns because he is a Falun Gong disciple" while Liu Siying "regretted her action and said she was cheated by her mother".2001-02-04 Horrific burns do not worry Falun Gong disciple, say media https://www.scmp.com/article/338192/horrific-burns-do-not-worry-falun-gong-disciple-say-media South China Morning Post en In April 2002 the government allowed foreign journalists to interview the survivors in the presence of state officials. The interviewees refuted claims that the self-immolation was staged, showing their burn injuries as evidence, and denounced Falun Gong while expressing support for the authorities' handling of the group.Jeremy Page http://www.facts.org.cn/Reports/World/200708/t60322.htm Reuters: Survivors say China Falun Gong immolations real 4 April 2002 Facts.org 24 October 2013 21 September 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20130921060146/http://www.facts.org.cn/Reports/World/200708/t60322.htm dead When asked why they set themselves on fire, Hao Huijun replied that she had realized the futility of writing letters and demonstrating by waving banners, "so finally, we decided ... to make a big event to show our will to the world. ... We wanted to show the government that Falun Gong was good." At the time of the interview, Chen Guo and her mother were said to still be in the hospital, both having lost their hands, ears, and noses. Both her mother's eyes were covered with skin grafts. Wang Jindong, showing burns to his face, said he felt "humiliated because of my stupidity and fanatical ideas." Chinese media reports The state-run Xinhua News Agency released a story about the incident to foreign media two hours after the self-immolation occurred.Ownby 2008 216 Xinhua then distributed a fuller press release seven days later on Tuesday 30 January,http://www.zhihui.com.cn/storydb/truth/0130.htm zhihui.com.cn zhihui.com.cn 11 October 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20131014173129/http://www.zhihui.com.cn/storydb/truth/0130.htm 14 October 2013 in response to other media reports on the incident. On 31 January, a 30-minute special edition of the current affairs programme Forum presented the state's version of the events to the Chinese public.David Ownby Falun Gong and the future of China https://archive.org/details/falungongfutureo2008ownb registration Oxford University Press 2008 215–216 978-0-19-532905-6 China Central Television aired footage, said to be taken by nearby surveillance cameras, of five people in flames.Danny Schechter http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/falungong2.shtml https://web.archive.org/web/20021202162929/http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/falungong2.shtml 2 December 2002 The Fires This Time: Immolation or Deception In Beijing? Mediachannel 22 February 2001 Chinese authorities stated that the seven people who had come to Tiananmen Square with the intention of immolating themselves were all from the city of Kaifeng in Henan province. Xinhua asserted that the self-immolators were "avid practitioners" of Falun Gong who had taken up the practice between 1994 and 1997, and that they fantasised during the preceding week about "how wonderful it would be to enter heaven". Six of them reportedly took the train on 16 January, meeting Chen Guo, the daughter of one of them, upon their arrival in Beijing. The seven agreed to light themselves in different parts of the square at 2:30 pm on the designated day, using gasoline smuggled there in plastic soda bottles; each had been armed with two lighters in case one failed. According to the government-run China Association for Cultic Studies website, Wang Jindong stated afterwards that the group arrived in Tiananmen Square by two taxis, and were dropped off at the south of the Great Hall of the People, from where they walked to the spot where they would ignite themselves. Wang said he was approached by police as he was splitting open the soda bottles, and ignited himself hurriedly without assuming the lotus position.http://www.facts.org.cn/Words/200907/t95505.htm Wang Jindong: Blindness, death and rebirth (Excerpt) November 2007 China Association For Cultic Studies facts.org 5 October 2009 1 March 2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20110301020354/http://www.facts.org.cn/Words/200907/t95505.htm dead A press release from the Chinese government says that Liu Yunfang felt that the police were able to stop him burning himself because he had not attained the "required spiritual level."http://missions.itu.int/~china/pressrelease/archives/pressrelease01.htm Press Release: Suicidal Blaze, Another Crime of Falun Gong Government of the People's Republic of China 31 January 2001 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20110716071845/http://missions.itu.int/~china/pressrelease/archives/pressrelease01.htm 16 July 2011 Articles in the Yangcheng Evening News and the Southern Daily reported that police had evidence that a few foreign reporters had advance knowledge of the incident, and suggested that such reporters could be charged with "instigating and abetting a suicide." http://old.nationalreview.com/comment/commentprint021301a.html Beijing is Burning – More lies from the PRC National Review Ann Noonan 13 February 2001 24 October 2013 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20131029202638/http://old.nationalreview.com/comment/commentprint021301a.html 29 October 2013 State media claimed surveillance video showed six or seven reporters from CNN, the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse arriving just 10 minutes before the self-immolations took place; however, all three agencies denied advance knowledge of the incidentAP and AFP said they had no reporters in the square at the time. In contrast, CNN's chief news executive, Eason Jordan, said the CNN crew was there on a routine check for a possible Falun Gong protest. Falun Gong response Immediately following the self-immolation, the Falun Dafa Information Center denied that the self-immolators could have been Falun Gong practitioners, writing that Falun Gong's teachings prohibit killing and that suicide is considered a sin.http://www.clearwisdom.net/eng/2001/jan/23/vsf012301_3.html Press Statement Clearwisdom 23 January 2001 9 February 2007 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. Specifically, Wang Jindong was said to be multiple actors and not a real person.A Look Back on the “Tiananmen Square Self-Immolation” Hoax at its Ten Year Anniversary https://www.upholdjustice.org/node/220 www.upholdjustice.org 24 January 2026 en 20 January 2011 The analysis of Wang Jindong’s voices in three episodes of CCTV’s “Topics in Focus” did not belong to the same person. The analysis was done by renowned voice lab in Taiwan University. Falun Gong has also charged that all of the self-immolators were replaced with actors while inside the ambulance.Investigative Report on the Tiananmen Square Self Immolation Hoax by World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) https://www.upholdjustice.org/node/390 www.upholdjustice.org en 23 September 2017 So during the two-hour period from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., the ambulance’s whereabouts were unaccounted for. Where had these self-immolators gone to and what did they do? This time difference of two hours could explain why the first “Wang Jindong” and the second “Wang Jindong” were not the same person. It is quite possible that the first “Wang Jindong” was replaced with another person, who had burning scars on his face, during these two hours, only that the second person was heavily bandaged. Falun Gong sources overseas questioned the official Chinese government account of the event, and apparent inconsistencies in the government's official narrative led to a hypothesis that the government staged the self-immolation to justify the persecution against Falun Gong by portraying its practitioners as irrational and suicidal.January 2026 According to this hypothesis, the self-immolation participants were paid actors, and were presumably assured that the flames would be extinguished before doing real harm.January 2026 Falun Gong sources also noted that the self-immolators' behaviour, the slogans they shouted, and their meditation postures were not consistent with the teachings or practices of Falun Gong.http://www.upholdjustice.org/English.2/S_I_second_report.htm Second Investigation Report on the 'Tiananmen Square Self-Immolation Incident World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong upholdjustice.org August 2003 6 February 2007 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20071119085438/http://www.upholdjustice.org/English.2/S_I_second_report.htm 19 November 2007 Falun Gong released a frame-by-frame analysis of the CCTV footage which purportedly shows that Liu was actually killed by a deadly blow to the head from a man in a military overcoat.http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/9/5/39928.html Report from the 'World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong' Reveals Chinese Government Lies – Official Government Media Seriously Violate Basic Reporting Principles and Professional Ethics Clearwisdom 5 September 2003 4 October 2007Yu Haiqing Media and Cultural Transformation in China Taylor & Francis 2009 133–134 978-0-415-44755-3 https://books.google.com/books?id=xUWC188UoVcC&q=%22false%20fire%22%20falun%20gong&pg=PA133 Some Falun Gong sources argue that the government may have killed her as a way of guaranteeing her silence.Falun Dafa Minghui.org http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2011/10/1/128478.html 54 Facts That Reveal How the "Self-Immolation" on Tiananmen Square Was Actually Staged for Propaganda Purposes – Part 2 13 October 2012 Third-party findings thumb|left|upright=1.15|alt=composite image of three portraits and a table comparing them |Three pictures broadcast by state-media, presented by Falun Gong as evidence that Wang Jindong "was played by different people" The identities of some of the self-immolators, and their relationship to Falun Gong, were investigated by Philip Pan of The Washington Post. State-run Xinhua News Agency had reported that Liu Chunling's adoptive mother spoke of Liu's "obsession with Falun Gong", her "worshipping of Li Hongzhi", and that Liu would teach her daughter Falun Gong.Xinhua News Agency http://www.china.org.cn/english/7490.htm Families of Falun Gong Victims After Tragedy china.org.cn 1 February 2001 Pan's investigation, however, found none of Liu's neighbours had ever observed her practising Falun Gong. Neighbours had described Liu as having "psychological problems" and lead a "troubled life", including allegations that she abused her mother. Most residents in Kaifeng felt disgraced by what Liu had done (i.e. the self-immolation) and the reporter heard that Liu "worked in a nightclub and took money to keep men company. According to David Ownby, a University of Montreal historian and expert on Falun Gong, Pan's portrayal of Liu Chunlin is "hardly a typical profile of a [Falun Gong] practitioner".Ownby 2008 217 Foreign journalists were not allowed to interview the self-immolation victims recovering in hospitals, neither were the victims' relatives, according to David Ownby.Ownby 2008 217 : "Foreign journalists were not allowed to interview those recovering in hospitals, and neither were their relatives". Pan wrote that "Beijing denied requests to interview Liu Siying and the three other survivors, who are all hospitalized ... A Kaifeng official said only China Central Television and the official New China News Agency were permitted to speak to their relatives or their colleagues. A man who answered the door at the Liu home referred questions to the government." The state-run press interviewed the survivors, however. In one such interview, conducted less than a week after the incident, the state-owned CCTV interviewed the 12-year-old Liu Siying. Government sources reported Liu Siying had undergone a tracheotomy shortly before the interview. In the interview, Liu Siying stated that her mother had introduced her to Falun Gong in March 2000 and when asked by a CCTV reporter whether she was aware that the fire would hurt her, she responded "I thought the road to the heavenly kingdom was golden". Ian Johnson observed 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." Pan also questioned the positioning of the cameras, noting that some close-up shots shown on Chinese television appeared to have been taken without police interference. "In some, the camera is clearly behind police barricades," he wrote in The Washington Post. In addition, overhead surveillance camera footage seemed to show a man filming the scene using a small hand-held camera, rather than a large camera of the type used for TV news reporting.Philip Pan China May Charge Foreign Reporters Over Tiananmen Burning 9 February 2001 The Washington Post A23 ProQuest The Age commented that the "ready availability of fire-extinguishers and official TV teams and the lack of verification about the victims" raised questions about whether authorities had advanced knowledge of the self-immolation.Hamish Mcdonald http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/15/1097784013251.html?oneclick=true What's wrong with Falun Gong The Age 16 October 2004 Police were on the scene of the self-immolation within 90 seconds, carrying numerous pieces of firefighting equipment. A European journalist was quoted as saying "I have never seen policemen patrolling on Tiananmen Square carrying fire extinguishers. How come they all showed up today? The location of the incident is at least 20 minutes roundtrip from the nearest building – the People's Great Hall", noting that it would have been too late to get the fire extinguishers from the building.Danny Schechter, "Falun Gong's Challenge to China" (Akashic Books, 2001). pp 20 – 23 John Gittings of The Guardian stated, however, that it was common practice in many countries for police camera operators to be on hand when a public disturbance is anticipated; the police used small-scale fire-extinguishers of the type carried in public vehicles, many of which are routinely on the square. Scholar James R. Lewis argued that it was highly unlikely that the victims were paid. He wrote that it was likely "a demonstration planned and executed by local practitioners—though directly inspired by a combination of Li Hongzhi's violent apocalyptic vision, his call to non-specific action against the Chinese government, and examples of prior religious suicides and protest suicides".Lewis James R. A Burning Faith in the Master: Interpreting the 1.23 Incident Journal of Religion and Violence 2018 6 2 172–190 10.5840/jrv201811957 Similarly, Helen Farley described the protest as organized independently of Falun Gong hierarchy but without any Chinese involvement, observing that "some of the adults had participated in previous protests."Farley Helen Self-harm and Falun Gong: karmic release, martyrdom or suicide Journal of Religion and Violence 2013 1 3 267 https://www.jstor.org/stable/26671407 2159-6808 According to the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, all self-immolators except Liu Siying previously participated in protests against China's actions on Falun Gong on Tiananmen. Dispute Following the incident, the details of why the individuals were involved have been and remain the subject of dispute between representatives of Falun Gong, the Chinese government, and other observers. A significant challenge to arriving at a definitive assessment of the event is that independent corroboration of the government's claims has not been possible. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the lack of independent information made the incident one of the most difficult stories for reporters in Beijing to report.http://www.irb-cisr.gc.ca/Eng/ResRec/RirRdi/Pages/index.aspx?doc=416268 Responses To Information Requests "CHN43081.E" Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada UNHCR 12 December 2014 In a 23 November 2004 telephone interview with the Research Directorate, the senior researcher on China for HRW asserted that it would not have been possible for independent organisations to conduct an independent investigation of the incident. According to the senior researcher, the incident was one of the most difficult stories for reporters in Beijing at the time to report on because of a lack of information and difficulties in ascertaining the extent of control of the information The New York Times stated that conflicting claims were difficult to assess "[w]ith propaganda streaming in from seemingly opposite ends of the universe ... especially since the remaining Falun Gong practitioners have been driven underground."Elisabeth Rosenthal https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/05/world/former-falun-gong-followers-enlisted-in-china-s-war-on-sect.html Former Falun Gong Followers Enlisted in China's War on Sect The New York Times 5 April 2002 Philip Pan's investigation, and other inconsistencies highlighted by Falun Gong organisations, led some human rights observers, such as the Laogai Research Foundation, to entertain the possibility that the self-immolation was not as straightforward as the Chinese official media accounts suggested. In the National Review, Ann Noonan of the Laogai Research Foundation suggested that it was "hardly a far-fetched hypothesis" that the government staged the incident or allowed it to proceed to discredit Falun Gong, as the government vowed to crush the practice before the eightieth anniversary celebrations of the Communist Party in July.http://en.minghui.org/eng/2001/feb/14/nmr021401_2.html Ann Noonan Beijing is Burning: More lies from the PRC 12 December 2014 Clive Ansley, a Vancouver-based rights lawyer who lived in China during the self-immolation, suggested that a dramatic response by Falun Gong would have been understandable, but ultimately concluded that the event was staged: "You've got Falun Gong people in this country, they've been oppressed over and over again, they are not allowed to speak, they are not allowed to assert any of their rights as citizens, the level of frustration must be terribly, terribly high.. I can understand people doing that.. but ironically, we ultimately found out that it was staged anyway, it was not real. It was completely staged by the government."Quoted in Peter Rowe (2007), "Beyond the Red Wall: The Persecution of Falun Gong" CBC Television Documentary. Reviewing the divergent narratives on the identity of the self-immolation victims, historian David Ownby concluded that "although the arguments of Falun Gong practitioners seem cogent, it is very difficult to arrive at a final judgment about the self-immolation. ... there are desperate people in China (and elsewhere) who will do anything for money (which would go to their families in this case, one supposes, unless the authorities had promised to rescue them before the flames could do harm). Or the entire event could have been staged. But it seems just as possible that those who set themselves on fire might have been new or unschooled Falun Gong practitioners, had discovered and practised Falun Gong on their own (and badly) in the post-suppression period, and, for whatever reason, decided to make the ultimate sacrifice."Ownby 2008 218 Other human rights activists speculated that the five who set themselves on fire did so to protest the government's crackdown on Falun Gong. Barend ter Haar was open to the idea that the self-immolators were Falun Gong practitioners, and postulated that former Buddhists may have brought with them the "respectable Buddhist tradition of self-immolation as a sacrifice to the Buddha". He sought to account for the inconsistencies by suggesting that the government may have fabricated a video of their own when they realised the mediatic potential of the suicides.Haar Barend ter http://faculty.orinst.ox.ac.uk/terhaar/falun.htm Part One: Introductory remarks (click on "Introductory remarks on left of page) Barend ter Haar, Leiden University 2001 12 December 2014 https://web.archive.org/web/20150216015939/http://faculty.orinst.ox.ac.uk/terhaar/falun.htm 16 February 2015 dead Francesco Sisci, Asia editor of La Stampa, supported the possibility that the self-immolators were Falun Gong practitioners, writing in the Asia Times that "no one believed that the government could have paid a mother to torch herself and her daughter, or that she was so loyal to the Communist Party that she pretended to be a Falungong member and kill herself and her only daughter, even if Falungong master Li Hongzhi forbade suicide ..."http://www.atimes.com/china/DD10Ad01.html https://archive.today/20130117195556/http://www.atimes.com/china/DD10Ad01.html unfit 17 January 2013 The burning issue of Falungong Asia Times Francesco Sisci 2002 In Sisci's view, Chinese officials made a mistake by arresting foreign journalists on Tiananmen —"independently filmed news footage of the proceedings could have been the best proof of Falungong madness. Instead, when the government reported the episode, it looked like propaganda." Time noted some of the confusion surrounding the conflicting views on the self-immolation; one Beijing Falun Gong practitioner interviewed appeared to accept that the self-immolators were practitioners engaged in protest, while Falun Gong organisations overseas denied any involvement.Hannah Beech http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,97124,00.html https://web.archive.org/web/20070217183709/http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,97124,00.html dead 17 February 2007 Too Hot to Handle Time 29 January 2001 9 February 2007 Time also speculated that the "lack of solidarity" in Falun Gong was contributing to the sense of desperation of mainland Chinese practitioners who may feel out of touch with the exiled leadership. Guardian reporter John Gittings reported that some observers believed the self-immolators might have acted in desperation and confusion.John Gittings https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jan/29/china.johngittings China prepares for new offensive against 'dangerous' sect The Guardian 29 January 2001 London Some observersJanuary 2026 have speculated that if the participants were Falun Gong practitioners, they may have resorted to self-immolation in response to the publication of a new scripture by Li Hongzhi released on 1 January 2001, "Beyond the Limits of Forbearance".January 2026 An article authored by a collection of mainland Chinese Falun Gong practitioners and published on the main Chinese-language Falun Gong website noted that the scripture had confused both among Falun Gong practitioners and "in society," and that some people wondered whether Falun Gong would resort to violence to resist persecution. The authors wrote that this would not occur, as violence would be both counterproductive and contrary to the practice's core teachings.Minghui, "Harmonizing Dafa, Not Going to Extremes", 10 January 2001.January 2026 A Falun Gong spokesperson clarified that the new scripture meant it was time to "bring truth to light" about human rights abuses committed by the Chinese government. Nonetheless, Gittings posited that the scripture may have confused Falun Gong followers, particularly in mainland China. Matthew Forney wrote in Time magazine that Li's message had spread into China via the internet and informal networks of followers, and speculated that it may have galvanised more radical practitioners there.Matthew Forney http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,165163,00.html https://web.archive.org/web/20070217201518/http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,165163,00.html dead 17 February 2007 The Breaking Point Time 25 June 2001 David Ownby wrote that he found the brief message to be "difficult to interpret": on its surface, the scripture resembled a "call to arms" against what Li described as "evil beings who no longer have any human nature or righteous thoughts." Yet Ownby said no practitioners he talked to had seen the scripture as a "green light" for violent action. Instead, practitioners had interpreted it to mean exactly the opposite, that they could non-violently resist suppression without guilt; they could stop "simply surrendering to the police at the first moment of a confrontation. They could run away, they could organize, they were, in a word, free of whatever constraints the necessity to "forbear" had previously placed upon them." In an interview with The Washington Post, Ownby noted that Li does not endorse suicide in any of his recent statements, "But a practitioner at the end of his or her rope in China could certainly see [the statements] as an endorsement for martyrdom, and perhaps choose his or her own means to achieve that."A Foe Rattles Beijing From Abroad (scroll down for article) http://www.cesnur.org/2001/falun_march04.htm#Anchor-11481 John Pomfret The Washington Post 9 March 2001 Aftermath Media campaign and public opinion The state media coverage of the event resulted in increased support for the Party's persecution efforts against Falun Gong, and eroded public sympathy for the group. Time reported that before the self-immolation incident, many Chinese had felt that Falun Gong posed no real threat, and that the state's persecution had gone too far. After the event, however, China's media campaign against Falun Gong gained significant traction. The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong reported that hostility toward Falun Gong from the general public escalated, the government had stepped up its campaign, and charged that "hate crimes" targeting Falun Gong increased.WOIPFG http://www.upholdjustice.org/node/200 Investigation Reports on the Persecution of Falun Gong: Volume 1 2003–2004 World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong 4 October 2007 One western diplomat commented that the public changed from sympathising with Falun Gong to siding with the Government, popular consensus seemingly shifted by human-interest stories and accounts of rehabilitation efforts of former practitioners.Jonathan Ansfield Reuters After Olympic win, China takes new aim at Falun Gong 23 July 2001 Østergaard believes that, in retrospect, the New Year scripture was Li's greatest gift to the state, as the self-immolations marked a turning point which ended domestic support for the movement.https://books.google.com/books?id=H80YZqSj7EEC&pg=PA208 Governance in China Jude Howell Clemens Stubbe Østergaard 220 (Governance and the Political Challenge of Falun Gong) 2003 Rowman & Littlefield 0-7425-1988-0 The self-immolation incident was given prominent coverage in the official Chinese media, which analysts say took a propagandistic line. According to Philip Pan, the Communist Party "launched an all-out campaign to use the incident to prove its claim that Falun Gong is a dangerous cult, and to turn public opinion in China and abroad against the group ... Every morning and night, the state-controlled media carry fresh attacks against Falun Gong and its U.S.-based leader, Li Hongzhi." Posters, leaflets and videos were produced, detailing the supposed detrimental effects of Falun Gong practice. The New York Times reported that the public was "bombarded with graphic images of the act on television and in newspapers."Erik Eckholm, "Beijing Judge Jails 4 for Promoting Falun Gong's Public Suicides", The New York Times, 18 August 2001.January 2026 In China's schools, regular anti-Falun Gong classes were scheduled. Eight million students joined the "Anti-Cult Action by the Youth Civilized Communities Across the Nation". Twelve million children were made to submit writings disapproving of the practice. Within a month of the Tiananmen Square incident, authorities issued a document entitled The whole story of the self-immolation incident created by Falun Gong addicts in Tiananmen Square, containing colour photographs of charred bodies. The State Council's "Office for the Prevention and Handling of Evil Cults" declared after the event that it was now ready to form a united front with the "global anti-cult struggle". Meetings took place in factories, offices, universities and schools, and approved religious leaders across the country had delivered denunciations of Falun Gong. In Kaifeng, the post office issued an anti-Falun Gong postmark, and 10,000 people signed a petition denouncing the group. Anti-cult activist Rick Alan Ross dedicated his 2014 book, Cults Inside Out: How People Get in and Can Get Out, to Hao Huijun and Chen Guo, whom he met in 2011 at an international cultic studies conference in Shenzhen, calling them "icons of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance".Ross Rick Alan Cults Inside Out: How People Get in and Can Get Out 2014 978-1497316607 4Ross Rick Alan 2011-01-05 The face of Falun Gong https://cultnews.com/2011/01/the-face-of-falun-gong/ Cult Education Institute Continued reports of self-immolation On 16 February 2001, another self-immolation was attributed to Falun Gong. Tan Yihui, a 25-year-old shoeshiner from Hunan province, immolated himself on a street in Beijing at noon, dying at the scene. The news went into broadcast the same day in the 7 p.m. local evening news. State media reported that a six-page suicide note had been found, declaring a belief in Falun Gong and describing the self-immolation as a means to "forget about life and death and achieve perfection in Paradise".Rosenthal Elisabeth 2001-02-17 Another Falun Gong Member Reportedly Burns Himself in China https://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/17/world/another-falun-gong-member-reportedly-burns-himself-in-china.html The New York Times en-US 0362-4331 The news again drew suspicions among some journalists. Danny Schechter noted on the incident, "[a]longside a charred body an uncharred note is found allegedly claiming the victim did it to support Li Hongzhi's spiritual practice."Schechter 2001 20–23 Ian Johnson observed 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." According to China Daily, on 1 July, Luo Guili immolated himself in Nanning, dying the following day from his injuries.Farley Helen Self-harm and Falun Gong: karmic release, martyrdom or suicide Journal of Religion and Violence 2013 1 3 267–8 https://www.jstor.org/stable/26671407 2159-6808Chang Maria Hsia Falun Gong: The End of Days 2004 Yale University Press 978-0300102277 21 Violence and re-education The Washington Post reported that Chinese authorities benefited from the turn in public opinion against Falun Gong that followed the self-immolation, seizing on the opportunity to sanction "the systematic use of violence against the group." According to the Post, authorities "established a network of brainwashing classes and embarked on a painstaking effort to weed out followers neighbourhood by neighbourhood and workplace by workplace." According to sources, "reeducation" tactics employed included beatings, shocks with electric truncheons, and intensive anti-Falun Gong study classes. According to a report published in The Wall Street Journal, in February 2001 the 6-10 Office "stepped up pressure on local governments" to implement the anti-Falun Gong campaign. In particular, it issued new, detailed instructions requiring that all who continued to actively practice Falun Gong were to be sent to prison or labour camps, and individuals who refused to renounce the practice were to be socially isolated and monitored by their families and workplaces. This was a shift from the past, when local officials sometimes tolerated Falun Gong on the condition that it was practised privately.Charles Hutzler, "Falun Gong Feels Effect of China's Tighter Grip – Shift Means Even Private Practice Is Banned," The Wall Street Journal Asian edition, 26 April 2001. According to Freedom House, in the year following the incident, the scale of imprisonment, torture, and deaths of Falun Gong practitioners in custody increased significantly. According to Freedom House, "months of relentless propaganda succeeded in turning public opinion against the group. Over the next year, the scale of imprisonment, torture, and even deaths of Falun Gong practitioners from abuse in custody increased dramatically." Li Hongzhi In July 2001, Craig S. Smith reported in The New York Times that Li had become increasingly critical of his followers in China who were "unable to endure torture or death" in defence of his cosmology. Li had stated that the movement was engaged in a "struggle with evil beings for the redemption or destruction of the universe". Li also stated that Consummation "awaited" those who endured the persecution. In Falun Gong terminology, Consummation is in reference to a transcendent event regarded as the goal of all followers. On Falun Gong website, Li wrote:"Any fear is itself a barrier that prevents you from reaching consummation".Smith Craig S. 2001-07-04 Falun Gong Deaths Set Off Dispute on Suicide Report https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/04/world/falun-gong-deaths-set-off-dispute-on-suicide-report.html 2026-10-06 The New York Times en-US 0362-4331 Impact on Falun Gong's resistance The self-immolation necessitated a change in tactics for Falun Gong. Tiananmen Square had been "permanently contaminated" as a venue for protest, according to journalist Ethan Gutmann, and Falun Gong's daily demonstrations in Beijing nearly ceased altogether.Gutmann, Ethan. (6 December 2010) https://archive.today/20130111104101/http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/thin-airwaves_519589.html 'Into Thin Airwaves'. The Weekly Standard According to Human Rights Watch, practitioners may have concluded "the protests had outlived their usefulness for demonstrating Chinese abuses or for informing an overseas audience of Falungong's harmlessness." Diaspora practitioners focused their attentions on getting the word out about the treatment of practitioners by the Chinese government, issuing reports to the United Nations and human rights organisations, staging public marches and hunger strikes outside of China, and documenting human rights abuses on websites. Within China, practitioners used mass mailings and handed out literature to "spread the truth" and counter the government's allegations against them. In an August 2001 press release, the US-based Falun Dafa Information Center noted this shift in strategy. It said Chinese practitioners "sometimes also manage to post large posters and banners in major thoroughfares. They even set up loudspeakers on rooftops or trees around labour camps and in densely populated areas to broadcast news about the human rights abuses." In 2002, Falun Gong practitioners in Changchun successfully broadcast two films on Chinese state television, accusing the authorities of staging the self-immolation, and interrupting scheduled programming for 50 minutes.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1860159.stm 7 March 2002 Falun Gong breaks onto China's airwaves BBC News Liu Chengjun, a Falun Gong practitioner who hacked into the satellite feed, was arrested and sentenced to prison, where he died 21 months later, allegedly tortured to death.https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27768.htm 2003 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau) Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US Department of State 3 October 2009 https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2005/51509.htm International Religious Freedom Report 2005: China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau) Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US Department of State 3 October 2009 International Religious Freedom Report 2005: China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau) https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2005/51509.htm Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US Department of State 3 October 2009 The United States Department of State said Liu Chengjun had reportedly been "abused in custody" and "beaten to death by police in Jilin City Prison".January 2026 The remaining five individuals behind the television hijacking were also imprisoned, and all have reportedly died or been tortured to death in custody. Fate of the self-immolators Five of the people involved in the incident were sentenced in mid-2001. Although the official Xinhua News Agency described the proceedings as a "public trial," only the final day of the month-long trial was open to the public. It consisted mainly of the reading of verdicts. The Guardian reported that on the last day of the one-month trial, Xinhua had, by mid-morning, issued a full report of the verdicts; the People's Daily had produced its own editorial by the afternoon. Liu Yunfang, named as the mastermind, was given a life sentence; Wang Jindong was given 15 years. Two other accomplices – a 49-year-old man named Xue Hongjun and a 34-year-old Beijing woman named Liu Xiuqin, who apparently provided the group with lodging and helped prepare the incident – were sentenced to 10 and 7 years in prison, respectively. Liu Baorong, who had "acknowledged her crime", was convicted of homicide, but escaped punishment because she had cooperated with authorities, who considered her role in planning the event as minor.17 August 2001 Four jailed over Tiananmen blaze https://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/08/17/china.fgong/index.html CNN Wang Jindong went on a hunger strike, and his wife and daughter were taken to a reform camp.John Gittings https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/aug/21/worlddispatch.china Chinese whispers surround Falun Gong trial The Guardian 21 August 2001 They were imprisoned in their home province of Henan.2005-01-23 Remorse from a Chinese prison https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2005/jan/23/remorse-from-a-chinese-prison/ The Spokesman-Review en In January 2005, the Associated Press reported that the sentences of three of those involved had been reduced for good behaviour and rehabilitation efforts. Liu Yunfang's life sentence was reduced to 19 years, Wang Jindong's 15-year sentence was reduced to 12½ years while Xue Hongjun's 10-year sentence was reduced to eight years. Additionally, two other self-immolation participants, Hao Huijun and Chen Guo, as well as Wang Jindong's wife and daughter, had been released from custody. In January 2014, Hao Huijun and Chen Guo underwent several reconstructive surgical procedures in the United States at the expense of billionaire Chen Guangbiao,Vlaskamp Marije 9 January 2014 Een nieuwe stunt van China's weldoener: Miljardair Chen betaalt operaties verminkte Falun Gong'ers https://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/een-nieuwe-stunt-van-china-s-weldoener~b63a3628/ Trouw who stated that he would spend over $2,000,000 on their medical procedures to restore the women's faces to approximately 80% of their original state. A few dozen Falun Gong practitioners organised a protest at a public speaking event in New York City, where Hao Huijun and Chen Guo condemned Falun Gong as a cult, calling the two "propaganda tools of the Chinese government". 2014-01-08 Chinese tycoon in NYC to help immolation victims https://www.deseret.com/2014/1/7/20460834/chinese-tycoon-in-nyc-to-help-immolation-victims/ Associated Press en Deseret News2014-01-07 Chinese Tycoon Brings 2 Women Burned In Tiananmen Square Protest To NYC For Surgery https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/chinese-tycoon-brings-2-women-burned-in-protest-to-nyc-for-surgery/ CBS News en-USCaruso David Chinese tycoon in NYC to help immolation victims https://apnews.com/article/0577c37d768f40479bae439381aab9a4 AP News 8 January 2014 The film Return - Chen Guo before and after plastic surgery (归来——陈果整容前后 no) documents Chen Guo's life after the incident. In January 2016, the film was subject of a symposium at the Central Conservatory of Music,1 February 2016 中央音乐学院座谈会：回顾“1.23”自焚事件 https://www.mwnews.cn/html/80/2016-01-27/09033319356.shtml 马尾新闻网 where Chen Guo was formerly a student.2001-02-02 'Thousands mobilised to crush deviant elements' ahead of NPC session and Olympic visit https://www.scmp.com/article/338029/thousands-mobilised-crush-deviant-elements-ahead-npc-session-and-olympic-visit South China Morning Post en References External links False Fire (Falun Gong site) Category:2001 suicides Category:2001 deaths Category:2001 fires in Asia Category:2001 in Beijing Category:Falun Gong Category:January 2001 in China Category:Political repression in China Category:Propaganda in China Category:Suicides by self-immolation in China Category:Suicides in China Category:Tiananmen Square Category:Youth suicides