Chinese Father Documents Life With Son Every Year of His Life for 3 Decades

2001: Tiananmen

In 2001, five people set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square. One man was seriously burned, yet he and the other four were detained by the Chinese police. This reportedly happened in response to criminalizing Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that the government worried followers were becoming too strong. Several Western journalists and scholars noted inconsistencies, and even suggested that the self-immolations were staged by the government to make Falun Gong seem too radical or extreme. The lack of independent information about the event made it very difficult to report, and Human Rights Watch took note of the inconsistencies too.