This article was first published in March 2001.

On Thursday, March 1,Chinese police arrested four people on suspicion they helped organize the mass suicide attempt in Tiananmen Square. The Chinese government has been trying to blame Falun Gong for the suicide. However, the reports on state-run media after the self-immolation and after the Thursday arrest contradict with each other.

According to AFP (March 1),

'there are subtle discrepancies in the official accounts of events leading to the January suicide bid. While the Chinese press had previously reported that Liu Yunfang, a 57-year-old worker from the city of Kaifeng in the central province of Henan, was prevented by police from immolating himself, Xinhua on Thursday said he never had the intention of committing suicide. ...

"I did not set myself on fire..." Liu said according to Xinhua, ...'

According to the UK Independent (March 1),

"Previous reports said a man, Wang Jindong, set himself on fire first and that four women followed soon after. State media also had said that the women doused themselves with gasoline to the north of a monument in the center of the vast square.

But the China Daily said the women doused themselves with gasoline in a nearby toilet and then ignited themselves on the square. It also said Wang, identified in the paper's report as a third planner of the incident, arrived at Tiananmen by taxi about 10 minutes later and then set himself alight."