Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident | |||||||
Simplified Chinese | 天安门自焚事件 | ||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 天安門自焚事件 | ||||||
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Standard Mandarin | |
Hanyu Pinyin | Tiān'ānmén Zìfén Shìjiàn |
The Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident took place in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, on the eve of Chinese New Year on 23 January 2001. The incident is disputed; Chinese government sources say that five members of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that is persecuted in mainland China, set themselves on fire in the square. Falun Gong sources disputed the accuracy of these portrayals, noting that their teachings explicitly forbid violence or suicide. Several Western journalists and scholars also noted inconsistencies in the government's account of event, suggesting the self-immolations were staged by the government to discredit Falun Gong.
According to Chinese state media, a group of seven people had travelled to Beijing from Henan province, and five set themselves on fire on Tiananmen Square. One of them, Liu Chunling, died at Tiananmen under disputed circumstances, and another, 12-year-old Liu Siying, reportedly died in hospital several weeks later; three survived. The incident received international news coverage, and video footage was broadcast a week later in the People's Republic of China by China Central Television (CCTV). In the Chinese press, the event was used as proof of the "dangers" of Falun Gong, and was used 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 identity of the two self-immolation victims who were killed, and found that "no one ever saw [them] practice Falun Gong". Other evidence surfaced by journalists and international observers suggests that Chinese authorities had advance knowledge of the self-immolation.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) wrote that "the incident was among one [sic] 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, and even the victims' family members, were barred from contacting them. 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; it may have been an authentic protest; the self-immolators could have been "new or unschooled" Falun Gong practitioners; and other views.