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Unlike most non-Canadian reporters, London Telegraph Beijing correspondent Richard Spencer takes note of the report by David Kilgour and David Matas on China’s trade in organs harvested from executed prisoners for transplant.
Outside Canada, no newspaper seems to have picked up the story, The Daily Telegraph included. There is a simple reason for this, of course. The uncontroversial, and verifiable bits of the report are old hat: we all know that foreigners are coming in significant numbers to China for transplants, and paying a lot of money to hospitals, and that nearly all such transplants are from executed prisoners.There is periodic outrage, and now the Chinese government promises something will be done about it. The bits that haven't been widely reported are based on testimony originally acquired from falun gong, the exercise and meditation group, or cult -depending on where you stand – which was banned in China by President Jiang Zemin in 1999 and pretty ruthlessly persecuted.
Claims by falun gong that their members have been specifically targeted by Chinese authorities for imprisonment, mass killing, and organ harvesting were widely investigated last year and found to be unproven. That angle is apparently based on hearsay evidence from a single reporter.
The most important points have previously been reported widely.
Yet the most recent report highlights things which are undoubtedly true and important, and increasingly admitted by the Chinese government itself:
- there is a substantial business in selling executed prisoners' organs
- many of the consumers are foreigners
- the organs are provided suspiciously quickly, indicating that either prematched prisoners are being executed to order or that there must at any time be a substantial pool to choose from
- much of the work is being done by military hospitals, or in civilian hospitals by military surgeons
- there is a total lack of transparency about everything to do with this issue: the numbers of people executed every year; their names; which have their organs removed; the documents in which they are supposed to have signed their agreements; the numbers of falun gong prisoners incarcerated; their names, and sentences.
Western governments should discourage companies from selling organ transplant-related drugs and supplies to China, and they should discourage citizens from traveling there for such procedures.
Previous related post: Albertans buying body parts in China: David Kilgour
[...] China’s organ transplant business [...]
That’s not to say China is perfect and there’s no problem or abuse, of course.
While China’s human rights record should be examined, fabricating charges and writing allegory of “Schindler’s List” is not the way.
In addition to being contradicted by secret investigations inside China, David Kilgour’s Falun Gong report was reviewd and discredited by congressional researchers.
In “The Collateral of Suppression”, a report critical of China written for Senator Dianne Feinstein, member of US Congressional Executive Committee on China (CECC), congressional researchers Emma Ashburn
and Thomas Lum were quoted:
“Emma Ashburn, a research associate at the Congressional-Executive Committee on China (CECC), said that the Matas-Kilgour report really ‚Äúoffered nothing new‚Äù in terms of evidence on the matter of organ harvesting. The evidence they did collect, namely the phone calls and testimonies, were dubious in their objectivity.
Specialist in Asian Affairs at the Congressional Research Service, Thomas Lum, noted that the evidence could have easily been distorted. The individuals calling the hospitals were all affiliated with FLG, and Lum said that it is unlikely for doctors and officials working for the state to casually divulge such sensitive and damaging information so easily.
Moreover, Lum’s efforts to contact both the Chinese journalist and doctor’s wife have been fruitless, as FLG members direct all communications toward these individuals and they often do not respond. Harry Wu, a longtime political activist known for his hardline anti-PRC views, announced on August 9, 2006 that he would challenge the allegations made by FLG about targeted organ harvesting, especially the claim about the Sujiatun concentration camp.
About the report, the South China Morning Post reports, ‚ÄúMr. Wu, who has spent 15 years gathering evidence on the harvesting of organs from executed Chinese prisoners, said the information was based on the testimony of two witnesses, neither of whom had first-hand information. He believed the reports were fabricated.‚Äù Wu had tried to follow up with the witnesses just as Lum had‚Äîto the same futility. In the face of these criticisms, including from even Wu, who formerly held friendly relations with FLG, all things considered the allegations FLG has made about a targeted campaign of state-sponsored genocide are most likely untrue.”
Charles Liu aka Bobby Fletcher,
Charles those American politicos have strong ties with China, so it’s pretty easy to tell which way they will swing when asked about the wrongdoing of the CCP.
But, if you must keep on doubting and spreading doubt, please take a look at BBC’s undercover investigation, followed by posts from Harry Wu’s website.
Organ sales ‘thriving’ in China
BBC- The sale of organs taken from executed prisoners appears to be thriving in China, an undercover investigation by the BBC has found….One hospital said it could provide a liver at a cost of £50,000 ($94,400), with the chief surgeon confirming an executed prisoner could be the donor….In April 2006, top British transplant surgeons condemned the practice as unacceptable and a breach of human rights.
http://www.laogai.org/news/newsdetail.php?id=2658
and this “Video: Sky TV goes under cover” is precious
http://en.epochtimes.com/news/6-4-26/40842.html
“This report verifies that:
¬? organs for transplantation are very plentiful in China;
¬? they are available on demand;
¬? the organs are supplied from prisoners;
¬? the prisoners are killed after they are found to match a patient who is awaiting a donor organ.
The nurse who welcomes him at the hospital cheerfully explains that their hospital can get organs “the fastest” because it has the ” best connections.” Waghorn explains the hospital publicly admits its links to China’s paramilitary police.”
China officially admits executed prisoners are the basis of organ trafficking
BEIJING — After years of denial, China has acknowledged that most of the human organs used in transplants here are taken from executed prisoners and that many of the recipients are foreigners who pay hefty sums to avoid a long wait.
http://www.laogai.org/news/newsdetail.php?id=2704
http://www.laogai.org/news/newsdetail.php?id=2703
BTW Bobby your statement about the Malaysian Hospital is pure fiction….
The Ministry of Health Malaysia report can be found at http://crc.gov.my/clinicalTrial/documents/Proposal/TCM_Stroke%20TrialProtocol%20synopsis.pdf, which you provided on other blogs. The Malaysian Government mentioned that it was a clinical trial titled, “A multi-center, open label trial to demonstrate the clinical effectiveness and safety of combined Traditional Chinese and Modern medicines in patients with recent stroke”. Nothing at all to do with organs (or harvesting).…& Bobby you tried so hard to mislead everyone with this open statement: “As you can see, the hospital Falun Gong accused is partly owned by a Malaysian health care company and is subject to oversight beyond Chinese authority.”
But the best official report is that of Kilgour/Matas “Bloody Harvest” http://organharvestinvestigation.net
Let’s hope that the governments of the free world will soon wake up and dare to stop China from murdering its own people for organs-for profit.
By the way, Liu posts anti-Falun Gong material on all the blogs that he can put his hands on. And he takes special pride in trying to discredit the Kilgour-Matas report.
Makina, I find it ironic that you, a well documented Falun Gong disciple and blogsphere operative, is accusing others:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Makina+Dafa
Nothing you said above refutes US embassy and Harry Wu’s undercover investigations:
- US embassy, or US government is covering up Auschwitz for China? Where’s your proof for this outlandish claim?
- Wu’s concern with problems in allowing death row inmates to donate organ has nothing to do with his investigation that specifically discredited Falun Gong’s allegation. If nothing else it proves Falun Gong have twisted something to suit their own anti-China agenda.
- The Malaysian clincal trial document clearly stated Malay Health Dept officials visited the hospital in 2004. They did not find a concentration camp. Matter of fact the eastern madicine facility is not equipped for any significant western surgery.
- The BBC report you cited mentions nothing about Falun Gong or the allegation.
- As cited originally, in addition being contradicted by undercover investigation inside China, the Kilgour report was reviewed and discredited by US congressional researchers Emma Ashburn and Thomas Lum.
If you have any proof the US government is covering this up, show some proof.
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