China tycoon in New York vows to help self-immolation victims
Billionaire philanthropist Chen Guangbiao, who recently announced plans to buy the New York Times, says he plans to help the two severely disfigured women.
A business tycoon who bills himself as China’s No 1 philanthropist told reporters in New York on Tuesday that he had brought two women to the US to undergo surgery for disfiguring burns they suffered when they set themselves on fire in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 2001.
Chen Guangbiao, who made his fortune in recycling, introduced the two women to US and Chinese reporters at an unorthodox and sometimes tense news conference at a hotel near Central Park.
Inside a hotel ballroom, Chen began by singing a song he wrote himself, which included the soaring lyric, “The whole world will witness my Chinese dream!”
Then he talked of having a plan to buy The New York Times. He has said the paper, which has published investigations into the enormous wealth amassed by the relatives of Chinese leaders, should be more “more authentic and objective” in its coverage of China.
He also warned Americans not to trust the government of Japan, which is involved in a territorial dispute with China over several remote islands.
Finally, Chen had the two women display their horrific burns, which seared off their hands and left their faces masks of scarred flesh.
Outside in the cold, dozens of practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual movement picketed the event, saying the two burn victims were propaganda tools of the Chinese government.