Xinhua News Agency, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese government, treats two news stories differently in its TV program, and has drawn a lot attention from viewer outside Mainland.

The first story is on the death of China’s former Premier Zhao Ziyang on January 17. Xinhua News Agency only published a sentence with 67 words including punctuation on the last page of People’s Daily on the next day. From Zhao’s death up to now, among China’s state media, from central to local, only a few repeated the standard announcement. China’s state-run China Central Television that has the most influence did not even pick up this news.

Meanwhile, Xinhua News Agency started a new round of propaganda about the so-called, “Tiananmen Self-immolation,” which happened four years ago on January 23, 2001.

Xinhua purposely skipped the most important news, but put its most effort on an incident that happened four years ago, which has already been proven fake by the International Education Development (IED), an independent organization. But many people have already experienced Xinhua News Agency’s unique programming choices. In Mainland China, many people said that only the date of news is true on Xinhua News Agency’s paper, all the rest is fake.

Former President Zhao Ziyang devoted himself to China’s reform and modernization and had the most important contributions in the reform of the countryside. Because of his opposition to military action during the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989, he was put under house arrest for the rest of his life until his death.

After Zhao’s death, while Chinese government and its media kept the news on a low profile or chose to ignore it entirely, Chinese all around the world including Mainland China held their memorial ceremonies for Zhao. Foreign media and western governments gave unusual high evaluation to Zhao. Many overseas Chinese organizations held activities of to mourn Ziyang and renounce the CCP.

Regarding Xinhua News Agency’s new round of propaganda, Falun Gong’s website Minghui Net published an editorial titled, “Let’s remain silent on important news, but repeat the old lies of the self-immolation again.” The article said, “Xinhua News Agency tried its best to cover important news like Zhao’s death and several recent self-immolation cases by angry people against the government in Beijing. But Xinhua News Agency tried its best to defame Falun Gong by airing fake news directed by the CCP government over four years ago. It is very obvious that Xinhua News Agency is not a news media, but a dictator’s political tool. Cheating and misleading the public is its only purpose.”

According to a Minghui.Net report, overseas independent private media NTDTV produced a video named False Fire based on IDE’s analysis of CCTV’s “Tiananmen Self-immolation” tape. And the video was an award-winning video at the 51st Columbus International Film and Video Festival.

Many overseas Chinese are commenting on the Xinhua News Agency’s behavior. At the time of Zhao’s death, the CCP’s media picked up an old, fake story on the self-immolation again to defame Falun Gong, while its real purpose is to use Falun Gong to divert people’s attention.