(Minghui.org) Joseph Goebbels, chief propagandist for Nazi, once said, “A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.” Unfortunately, this applies to how the Chinese Communist Party has defamed Falun Gong in the past 25 years.
Falun Gong, a meditation system based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, was introduced to the public in 1992. Within a few years, about 100 million practitioners benefited from the practice. Jiang Zemin, then CCP leader, was jealous of Falun Gong’s popularity and began to suppress the group in July 1999.
Although Jiang threatened to eradicate Falun Gong within three months, many people had witnessed how Falun Gong changed practitioners for the better and thus were reluctant to carry out the persecution policy. To instill hatred in the general public and ramp up the suppression, Jiang and his follower Luo Gan directed the staged Self-Immolation Incident at Tiananmen Square on January 23, 2001.
After CCTV reported on it the same day, this theme repeatedly appeared in in-depth news coverage, literature, school textbooks, and even in the entertainment industry. Detailed analysis exposed the hoax in a number of ways, which were summarized in the award-winning documentary False Fire.
A Solider on Duty
One practitioner was detained in 2007 for practicing Falun Gong. A girl was detained in the same cell. After they got to know each other, the practitioner said she was kept there for practicing Falun Gong.
“We meditate to improve our mind and body,” explained the practitioner. “And it's not what the government claimed. The Communist Party published a lot of hate propaganda to smear Falun Gong. The so-called 'Tiananmen Self-Immolation' is one of them.”
“I know. That incident was set up by the government,” the girl immediately replied.
“Really? Have you heard about it from someone before?” asked the practitioner.
“Well, my boyfriend was a soldier in Beijing back then. When he came to visit me during that Chinese New Year break, we saw this report on television. He told me not to believe what was being publicized, since it was a lie,” replied the girl.
She went on. On the day before January 22, 2001, her boyfriend and other soldiers in his unit were told they would be on duty at Tiananmen Square on the following day.
“While we were on duty,” he said, “Several vans arrived. People got out, lit a fire, and then put it out. It was as if they were making a film.”
Noticing video cameras, the soldiers thought that these people were shooting footage for a TV program. They did not fully understand it until they saw the scenes on TV.
He said, “We were very familiar with the scenes in the program—except that some were now labeled as Falun Gong practitioners.”
Other detainees in the cell were shocked to hear this. After talking about it for a long time, most of them agreed to quit their membership in the CCP.
An Officer from the 610 Office
The self-immolation video aired on CCTV shows a man wearing a military overcoat appearing to strike Liu Chunling, one of the self-immolators, in the head with a heavy object. The blow's impact sent her immediately to the ground. The footage, however, does not show a close-up shot of Liu’s killing. Over the years people have wondered what exactly the heavy object was that the murderer used to end Liu’s life.
A staff member of the 610 Office in Yuzhong District of Chongqing had been sent to Beijing to capture local practitioners who had gone there to appeal for Falun Gong. He provided the following testimony.
“On the day of the self-immolation, I went to take a walk around Tiananmen Square after lunch. When I approached the monument, I noticed a large pile of fire extinguishers at the base of the monument and figured something was about to happen. I kept walking around and soon saw fire and smoke on the north side of the square.
“When I followed a few police officers to get there, I saw a tall and strong army policeman slamming the back of a woman’s head with a fire extinguisher; the woman was engulfed in aerosol and dust. She fell immediately. Because the policeman used such strong force, he lost hold of the extinguisher and it flew out of his hands.
“I was shocked by what I saw. More perplexing was that none of the other police officers present questioned this man. They just let him walk away. I felt a chill down my spine and was pretty sure that it was a planned killing.
“Later on, when I got a chance to watch a Falun Gong practitioner-produced video revealing the truth of the self-immolation, I saw one slow-motion segment showing a club-shaped object flying away from the back of the victim’s head. Having witnessed that critical moment, I knew the object was actually the handle of the fire extinguisher the video had captured. The rest of the view of the extinguisher was blocked by the foam it emitted and thus was not captured on video.
“Therefore, all these years I’ve never been influenced, no matter how Jiang and his gang tried to demonize Falun Gong. I know all the rulers do is incite people’s hatred toward Falun Gong.”
A Police Department Director in Xinjiang
A Minghui reader and her husband lived and worked in Xinjiang, China for over 60 years. In April 2002, they decided to return to our home city. Their friend, the director of the local police department, came to visit us. They spoke for nearly three and a half hours.
When the topic of the staged Tiananmen Self-Immolation Incident came up, the Director said, “In the days leading up to the event in 2001, the county's top public security bureau directors were called to Beijing for a meeting. I took part in that meeting.”
“After the meeting, we all visited the Forbidden City (a palace complex in central Beijing). Suddenly, we were ordered to make our way over to Tiananmen Square, where we witnessed the staged self-immolation.”
The Director thought that the timing seemed suspicious. It was as if senior officials in Beijing wanted the directors to personally witness this staged event.
He continued: “When Falun Gong made their peaceful protest in Beijing, on April 25, 1999, I discovered that more than 200 people had already taken up the practice in our city.
“I found out that all of these practitioners were good people and that none of them had committed any crimes. Thus, I knew that Falun Gong must be good.
“One administrator I know said, ‘There is nothing wrong with practicing Falun Gong. It also saves the practitioners a lot of unnecessary medical expenses!'”
CCTV Reporter
Li Yuqiang is a senior reporter for CCTV’s news show Focal Point. Since the persecution began in 1999 she has been responsible for producing programs defaming Falun Gong, including several interview programs.
In early 2002, Li once went to interview practitioners at a brainwashing center, the “Law Education and Training Center for the Capital of Hebei Province.” During her visit she held a "discussion" with Falun Gong practitioners who were illegally detained there.
Practitioners questioned her about the suspicious nature of the CCTV program containing the “self-immolation” scene. They mentioned evidence such as the example of Wang Jindong, who had been severely burnt, yet a Sprite bottle full of gasoline remained fully intact between his legs. Confronted with evidence and analysis, Li acknowledged that they had laid the Sprite bottle between Wang Jindong's legs after he had been burnt, and that the scene was staged. Li even admitted that had they known that people would doubt its authenticity, they would not have shot it.
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Category: CCP Propaganda
