Reactions to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests empathy for the events. North Korea, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany, among others, supported the Chinese government and denounced the protests. Overseas Chinese students demonstrated in many cities in Europe, America, the Middle East, and Asia against the Chinese government. Some Chinese citizens deplored the incident at Tiananmen Square, and believed that the massacre of peaceful protesters had been done with such brutal force as to prevent any further protests by citizens. In the immediate aftermath of the Tiananmen Square protests the Communist Party of China maintained its original condemnation of the student demonstrations (see April 26 Editorial) and characterised
Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident on 17 March. Some Falun Gong sources argue that she may have been killed by the government as a way of guaranteeing her silence. The program suggests that the reaction time of state-run television crews and police on Tiananmen Square demonstrates they had advance knowledge of the event. They observed that officers arrived almost immediately on the scene equipped with numerous fire extinguishers. Fire extinguishers are not standard equipment for police on Tiananmen Square; the nearest building that would house them was several minutes away from the scene. The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong further called