A European journalist was quoted as saying “I’ve never seen policemen patrolling on Tiananmen Sq. carrying fire extinguishers. How come they all showed up at this time? The placement of the incident is at the very least 20 minutes roundtrip from the closest constructing – the Individuals’s Nice Corridor”, noting that it would have been too late to get the fireplace extinguishers from the constructing. Chinese language authorities acknowledged that the seven individuals who had come to Tiananmen Sq. with the intention of immolating themselves were all from town of Kaifeng in Henan province. Chinese language holidays. Police monitored public entry to the square for the new Year celebrations, had hearth extinguishers prepared, and prevented Falun Gong practitioners from opening banners. Østergaard believes that, in retrospect, the brand new Yr scripture was Li’s greatest gift to the state, because the self-immolations marked a turning point which ended home support for the movement. Falun Gong practitioners, they might have resorted to self-immolation in response to the publication of a brand new scripture by Li Hongzhi released on 1 January 2001, “Past the limits of Forbearance”. The state-run Xinhua Information Company launched a narrative in regards to the incident to international media two hours after the self-immolation occurred.
Xinhua named seven individuals as having been concerned: Wang Jindong (王进东), Liu Chunling (刘春玲), Liu Siying (刘思影), Chen Guo (陈果), Hao Huijun (郝惠君), Liu Baorong (刘葆荣) and Liu Yunfang (刘云芳). Xinhua asserted that the self-immolators have been “avid practitioners” of Falun Gong who had taken up the observe between 1994 and שקיות רפואי להזמנה בטלגרם 1997, and that they fantasised throughout the preceding week about “how great it would be to enter heaven”. John Gittings of The Guardian stated, nonetheless, that it was common observe in many nations for police digital camera operators to be readily available when a public disturbance is anticipated; the police used small-scale fire-extinguishers of the type carried in public automobiles, a lot of that are routinely on the square. The seven agreed to mild themselves in numerous elements 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. Liu Baorong and Liu Yunfang were reportedly stopped by police earlier than they might mild themselves on fire.
A Falun Gong spokesperson clarified that the new scripture meant it was time to “bring fact to gentle” about human rights abuses dedicated by the Chinese authorities. Some Falun Gong sources argue that the federal government may have killed her as a method of guaranteeing her silence. Nonetheless, Gittings posited that the scripture could have confused Falun Gong followers, טלגראס כיוונים particularly in mainland China. An article authored by a group of mainland Chinese Falun Gong practitioners and printed on the principle Chinese-language Falun Gong web site noted that the scripture had confused each amongst Falun Gong practitioners and “in society,” and that some folks wondered whether or not Falun Gong would resort to violence to resist persecution. The World Group to investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong reported that hostility towards Falun Gong from most of the people escalated, the federal government had stepped up its marketing campaign, and charged that “hate crimes” targeting Falun Gong elevated. Time reported that earlier than the self-immolation incident, many Chinese had felt that Falun Gong posed no actual threat, and that the state’s persecution had gone too far. Following the incident, טלגראס אבן יהודה the main points of why the individuals were concerned have been and remain the subject of dispute between representatives of Falun Gong, the Chinese language authorities, and different observers.
In one such interview, conducted less than every week after the incident, the state-owned CCTV interviewed the 12-year-old Liu Siying. According to the Hong Kong-based mostly Data Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, all self-immolators besides Liu Siying previously participated in protests in opposition to China’s actions on Falun Gong on Tiananmen. In accordance with Human Rights Watch (HRW), the lack of impartial data made the incident probably the most difficult tales for reporters in Beijing to report. Other human rights activists speculated that the 5 who set themselves on hearth did so to protest the government’s crackdown on Falun Gong. The opposite three that set themselves on fireplace have been reported to have been “severely disfigured”. Within the interview, Liu Siying acknowledged that her mom had introduced her to Falun Gong in March 2000 and when asked by a CCTV reporter whether she was aware that the fireplace would damage her, she responded “I assumed the street to the heavenly kingdom was golden”. Pan found most residents in Kaifeng felt disgraced by what Liu had carried out (i.e. the self-immolation).