[Clearwisdom.net] On the afternoon before the start of the Spring Festival, five people set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square. The Xinhua News Agency gave an exclusive news report immediately, claiming they were Falun Gong practitioners. This soon became the news focus throughout the world. After a week of careful preparations, the Xinhua News Agency reported on "The complete story of the self-immolation". However, Falun Gong spokesmen in different places all declared this had nothing to do with Falun Gong. They pointed out that in Falun Gong's teaching, killing lives is forbidden. Moreover, what Falun Gong practitioners have been doing for over a year and a half has been appealing peacefully, without a single instance of violence.
In fact, when the attention of the world was drawn toward the identities of the individuals who attempted self-immolation as well as the statements on killing lives from Falun Gong, Jiang Zemin and his followers must have felt relieved, since people's attention was diverted form an important issue. That is, Jiang Zemin's government should be responsible for the attempted self-immolation.
Those people could be out of a job, or suffering from one of many injustices for which they could find no redress. Whatever their reasons, they chose to set themselves on fire right before the Spring Festival. Why is this? Obviously, they were in great despair and could no longer bear their situation in China. They chose to end their lives in the cruelest way, in front of the whole nation, even the whole world. Can there be any doubt that they were pointing to Jiang Zemin?! They would even die rather than endure Jiang's tyranny.
Everyone who still has human sensitivity will express the deepest sympathy for those people. It was their endless suffering that forced them to give up their lives. Even though they may have been deceived by some people in the Chinese government, and may have done this to frame Falun Gong, they still experienced tremendous torment to finish their lives. Any government responsible for its people would feel guilty for this kind of self-immolation, because the death was ultimately caused by the despair of the society. A government must be responsible for its society!
But, Jiang Zemin's government gave an inhuman and inferior performance during the whole process.
By claiming those victims to be Falun Gong practitioners, Jiang Zemin thought he could not only shirk the responsibility of their death, but also find excuses for further persecution of Falun Gong. However, it was not difficult to see through the trick:
1. No matter who sets himself on fire in Tiananmen Square, Jiang's government has to be responsible for it.
2. The statement from Falun Gong not only denied its relationship with the self-immolation incident, but also provided the principle that committing suicide is forbidden for Falun Gong practitioners. Anyone can confirm this by simply reading "Zhuan Falun" or "Falun Gong".
3. During his frenzied slander of Falun Gong, Jiang Zemin probably forgot one fact. That is, in front of the brutal persecution of the past 18 months, not one practitioner fought or swore back when being beaten or insulted.
4. Due to an insufficient understanding of Falun Gong, some people may believe what the Xinhua News Agency said. Still, this shows that the illegal persecution has gone so far that some even choose death over life.
5. Without adequate and reliable proof, the government quickly shifted its responsibility for this self-immolation incident onto Falun Gong. This only shows that Jiang's government was totally inhuman.
6. After one week's preparation, an otherwise obvious and extreme protest was described as an infatuated comedy of "suicide for the purpose of entering heaven". The responsibility was also shifted onto Falun Gong. This is not unusual for the Xinhua News Agency, which used to exaggerate the agriculture production to as high as "10,000 jin grains per mu" (or 11,000 pound per 667 sq. meters) or "The chairman of the country [Liu Shaoqi] was falsely charged as a traitor". It was also the the Xinhua News Agency that reported that, in the face of "authentic" evidence, Deng Xiaoping had to accept the false charges against him and agreed "never to reverse the verdict". (all these happened in the "great cultural revolution" that is considered the tragedy of the Chinese nation) Now, from several ordinary citizens who were burned nearly to death, isn't it easy to find some "evidence"?
7. During the inhuman persecution, Falun Gong practitioners would not give up practice even if they were tortured to death. It was not because they didn't treasure their lives. On the contrary, this showed their disagreement and resistance of the government's brutal crimes.
In the past several months, Jiang Zemin ordered the police and government officials nationwide to further the extreme, violent, and wicked persecution. Under this pressure, some were told that "it was OK even if the practitioners got killed since they would then be described as committing suicide" or "the torturing can never fo too far". With that kind supervision, and those government officials in command, it is conceivable that these conscienceless and lawless minds would frame Falun Gong with the Self-Immolation incident.
It was miserable that the accusation that people brought up against the dictator with their lives was used to frame innocent people!
It was unforgivable that, while ignoring the suffering of China's citizens, Jiang Zemin shifted his responsibility onto others!
Wu Lei
January 31, 2001
