Li Ting, from Chengde City, Heibei Province, is an example of one of the cases that were fabricated by the People's Daily (state-run newspaper) after July 22, whereby they have claimed that practicing Falun Gong has caused people to die. In reality, Li Ting is someone who has a history of mental illness and he is not a Falun Gong practitioner at all.

Li Ting was an introverted and mentally ill person from a young age, as his father often told colleagues. After he took the high school entrance exam, Li's parents spent several thousand Yuan to get him into the Second High School of Chengde City because Li's score was below the entrance level. Li was often absent from school because he couldn't control himself. Once he lost control during a physical education class, so his teacher spoke to his parents and asked them to take him for a medical examination. The results indicated that Li had mental problems. Later Li dropped out of school because he couldn't handle classes as a normal person. Li became more depressed after withdrawing from school. He often stayed at home and he seldom went out. He isolated himself. According to his neighbor, Li often quarreled with his parents and once he even threatened to kill his parents. Li's parents found him a job at a small grocery store, but later the store fired him, fearing that something may go wrong with him because he looked abnormal.

Li approached a nearby Falun Dafa practice site a couple of days before he killed his parents. He was walking with his bike holding a cigarette in his hand when he asked a practitioner at the site if he could practice Falun Gong. The practitioner told him it was all right for him to learn the exercises but he must learn Dafa first. He never showed up at the practice site again. This strongly suggests that Li was never a Falun Gong practitioner. (1) His smoking a cigarette is an excellent indication since Falun Gong practitioners don't smoke; (2) Li never started practicing even though he showed his desire to learn; (3) Li had a mental illness, which is not suitable for practicing. This is common sense in Falun Gong cultivation. Although Li claimed that he was a Falun Gong practitioner after he killed his parents, that is just nonsense made up by an insane person. It is clearly groundless that the government attributed the killing to Falun Gong.

Falun Gong practitioners in Mainland China

September 2000