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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.〔〔("On Ten Year Anniversary, Tiananmen Square Self-Immolation Continues to Be Deadly Frame-up" ), Falun Dafa Information Center, 19 January 2011〕 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.〔Danny Schechter, "Falun Gong's Challenge to China" (Akashic Books, 2001)〕〔 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 () practice Falun Gong". Other evidence surfaced by journalists and international observers suggests that Chinese authorities had advanced knowledge of the self-immolation.〔 Human Rights Watch (HRW) wrote that "the incident was 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. The campaign of state propaganda that followed the event eroded public sympathy for Falun Gong. ''Time'' magazine noted that many Chinese had previously felt that Falun Gong posed no real threat, and that the state's crackdown against it had gone too far. After the self-immolation, however, the media campaign against the group gained significant traction.〔 Posters, leaflets and videos were produced detailing the supposed detrimental effects of Falun Gong practice, and regular anti-Falun Gong classes were scheduled in schools.〔 CNN compared the government's propaganda initiative to past political movements such as the Korean War and the Cultural Revolution.〔 Later, as public opinion turned against the group, the Chinese authorities began sanctioning the "systematic use of violence" to eliminate Falun Gong. In the year following the incident, the imprisonment, torture, and deaths of Falun Gong practitioners in custody increased significantly.〔Sarah Cook, Sarah (4 November 2013) ("Be Skeptical of the Official Story on the Tiananmen Car Crash" ) Freedom House.〕 == Background == Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a form of spiritual qigong practice that involves meditative exercises, and a philosophy drawing on Buddhist and Taoist tradition introduced by Li Hongzhi in Northeast China in the spring of 1992. By the late 1990s, it had attracted tens of millions of followers.〔David Ownby, "Falun Gong and the Future of China" Oxford University Press (2008)〕〔(Faison, Seth "In Beijing: A Roar of Silent Protestors" ) ''The New York Times'', 27 April 1999〕 Falun Gong initially enjoyed official recognition support during the early years of its development.〔 By the mid-1990s, however, Chinese authorities sought to rein in the growth of qigong practices, enacting more stringent requirements on the country's various qigong denominations.〔〔David Palmer, "Qigong Fever: Body, Science and Utopia in China" Columbia University Press (2007).〕 In 1996, Falun Gong came under increasing criticism and surveillance from the country's security apparatus.〔James Tong, "Revenge of the Forbidden City" Oxford University Press (2009).〕 On 25 April 1999, more than ten thousand practitioners congregated outside Communist Party of China headquarters in Zhongnanhai to request legal recognition.〔〔Ethan Gutmann, ('An Occurrence on Fuyou Street' ), National Review, 13 July 2009.〕 That evening, then-Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin issued a decision to eradicate Falun Gong. At Jiang's direction, on 7 June 1999 a special leading group was established within the party's Central Committee to manage the persecution.〔Sarah Cook and Leeshai Lemish, ('The 610 Office:Policing the Chinese Spirit' ), China Brief , Volume 11 Issue 17 (9 November 2011).〕 The resulting organisation, called the 6-10 Office, assumed the role of coordinating the anti-Falun Gong media coverage in the state-run press, as well influencing other party and state entities such as the courts and security agencies.〔〔 On 19 July, the Central Committee of the Communist Party issued a document effectively banning the practice of Falun Gong. The following day, hundreds of practitioners were detained by security forces.〔〔 The persecution that followed was characterised by a "massive propaganda campaign" intended to justify the persecution by portraying Falun Gong as superstitious, dangerous, and incompatible with the official ideology.〔〔Amnesty International ('China: The crackdown on Falun Gong and other so-called "heretical organization"' ) 23 March 2000〕 Tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners were imprisoned, and by the end of 1999, reports began to emerge of torture in custody. According to Ian Johnson, authorities were given broad mandates to eliminate Falun Gong and pursue the coercive conversion of practitioners, but were not scrutinised for the methods they used. This resulted in the widespread use of torture, sometimes resulting in death.〔Ian Johnson, ("Death Trap – How One Chinese City Resorted to Atrocities To Control Falun Dafa" ) ''The Wall Street Journal'', 26 December 2000〕 Tiananmen Square was one of the main venues where Falun Gong practitioners gathered to protest the persecution, usually by raising banners in defence of the group, or stage peaceful meditation sit-ins.〔Elisabeth Rosenthal, ("Falun Gong Holds Protests On Anniversary of Big Sit-In." ) ''The New York Times''. 26 April 2001.〕 Ian Johnson of the ''Wall Street Journal'' estimated that by 25 April 2000, more than 30,000 practitioners had been arrested for attempting to demonstrate in Beijing, most of them in or on the way to Tiananmen Square. Seven hundred Falun Gong followers were arrested during a demonstration in the Square on 1 January 2001. Chinese authorities struggled throughout the early years of the persecution to turn public opinion against Falun Gong. Instead, the campaign garnered criticisms from across a wide spectrum of Chinese society, with some commentators drawing comparisons to the Cultural Revolution and Nazi Germany's treatment of the Jews.〔Pomfret, John.(12 October 1999) ("Cracks in China's Crackdown" ), ''The Washington Post''.〕 According to Human Rights Watch, "the leadership's frustration with the failure of its efforts to quickly and thoroughly dismantle Falungong was also evident in its media campaign." The state-run press admitted in late 2000 that Falun Gong was continuing to stage protests in defiance of the ban, and proclaimed that "the 'broad masses' had to be made to understand the 'duration, complexity and ferocity of our battle with Falun Gong.'"〔 In January 2001, Chinese authorities launched a new wave of propaganda to discredit Falun Gong in which they urged state-run media organizations to vilify the group. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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