From the Chinese Public's Perspective

[Minghui net] During the celebration of the 2001 Spring Festival the local police tried to force me to attend their Falun Gong "turnaround" class. Having learned my lesson from the National Day celebration last October (when I was detained for ten days), I ran away before the Spring Festival. On my first day back at work after the Spring Festival I found several of my colleagues chatting together. When I moved closer to listen I noticed they had all the newspapers that carried full coverage of the so called Falun Gong practitioners' self-immolation. I decided to listen to their conversation. The following is what they said: Colleague I: This government is really shameless. They have forced people to commit suicide. How could they still have the nerve to use this incident as their propaganda? They take it as an honor rather than a shame! Colleague II: The [...] party is just like this, they never let the public voice their opinions. You know that throughout their history whenever anyone even disagreed with them the ending was tragic. They never let people speak out. Colleague III: Compared to those who dared to challenge the emperors in ancient times, these Falun Gong practitioners are even more extraordinary. It is a pity they died like this. However the fuss that the party made over this incident was unjustified. Besides, many others have also done this when they were so miserable. Colleague II: This time the government behaved out of character. In the past they tried to cover up when, and how many practitioners were exercising in Tiananmen Square, fearing the public would know how many people were discontented with the government. They especially feared being denounced by international communities for trampling human rights. This time they were very eager to bring this incident to the public, which just showed their frantic, poor judgment. Colleague I: In the end they brought much condemnation upon themselves. Colleague II: I think there are questionable points in this incident. There are so many policemen in Tiananmen Square. How could these people still have time to douse themselves with gas and set themselves on fire? Colleague III: (talking to me)you should be careful. Don't try to go reasoning with him anymore. A mad dog will randomly bite anyone. Having heard their opinions, I felt relieved: The public is very clear about who is righteous and who is evil. Jiang Zemin once again picked up a rock to threaten others only to drop it on his own feet. Reported by a practitioner from Mainland China