On March 9, 2006, the first witness from mainland China came forward to disclose the shocking news: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) harvested organs from still alive Falun Gong in concentration and forced labor camps, and sold them for enormous profits.
This news shocked the world. Within a year, more witnesses stepped forward prompting several in-depth investigations, including a Canadian independent investigation team which released two groundbreaking reports.
Many of these sources confirmed the credibility of the allegation: China's massive organ harvesting of living Falun Gong practitioners was found in labor camps and prisons partnered with hospitals, especially military hospitals and correlated governmental organizations in the country. More importantly, the crime continues to this day.
When this practice was first revealed, the Chinese communist regime vehemently denied the allegations. They strategically removed vital pieces of evidence before inviting international organizations to conduct site investigations. Later, facing growing international pressure, the Chinese regime finally admitted to extracting organs from death row inmates, but continued to deny live organ extraction from Falun Gong practitioners.
Within one year, many organizations worldwide have overcome the initial shock of an unbelievable scenario, and now realize that this evil crime indeed exists. Heads of state and government, many well-known figures and individuals around the world have stood up to condemn the Chinese regime, demanding an end to this heinous crime. Several countries are closely monitoring this illicit organ harvesting, and a few governments have approached the Chinese regime, through diplomatic means, with their concerns about this matter. An international selection of government officials, attorneys, specialists and journalists have joined the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), demanding that the Chinese regime allow a thorough and unimpeded independent investigation.
Canadian Investigation Team Finds Heavy Military Involvement
The first report from the Canadian independent investigation team was released on July 6, 2006. On the morning of January 31, 2007, Canadian investigators David Matas and David Kilgour released their second investigational report as a revised version of their original report, expanding their body of evidence to 33 elements of proof and disproof from 18. These investigators found that many military hospitals in China were involved in extracting organs from the living, one example was the Organ Transplant Center of the Armed Police General Hospital in Beijing.
The report also stated that many military hospitals make enormous profits from selling organs. Patients often receive transplants in civilian hospitals, but those conducting the operation are military personnel. One finds that under the communist regime, selling organs becomes a major source of raising money for China's hospitals, healthcare facilities and clinics.
After the release of their original report, David Matas and David Kilgour have been invited to speak in almost 30 countries in Europe, Asia, North America and Australia. Their presentations have served to widely publicize this evidence that accuses the CCP's extracting organs from live Falun Gong practitioners. They have received a great deal of support from many countries.
Government Officials Express Concern
Heads of state and government from various countries, mainstream media and several international organizations have all expressed serious concern for this organ harvesting of live people. Many condemn the CCP for their crime and support a comprehensive investigation into this ongoing tragedy.
Officials from Canada, U.S., Australia, European parliament, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, Ireland, Denmark, Belgium, UK, Sweden, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and many non-government organizations such as the Association of World Citizens, the Association of International Human Rights in Germany, the Europe Transplant Foundation in Holland, the Sweden Organization Supporting Human Rights in China, the UK Transplant Association all strongly support an international investigation.
Matas and Kilgour toured Australia last August, appealing to government officials there for support. Two Australian dominant political parties reached a consensus toward conducting an independent investigation into the organ harvesting allegations in China.
On September 29, 2006, the U.S. Congress held the first public hearing on organ harvesting. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher urged the US government to take actions to stop this evil crime.
Fearing exposure of human rights issues—especially those related to organ harvesting—the CCP cancelled a scheduled meeting between Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and CCP leader, Hu Jiantao, prior to the Asia-Pacific Summit last November. Harper publicly announced that he wouldn't betray Canada's integrity for the sake of trade benefits, prompting the CCP to rescind their statement and restore the meeting.
Mr. Edward McMillan-Scott, vice chairman of the European Parliament, has repeatedly condemned the CCP. Scott has been a big supporter of anti-suppression measures involving Falun Gong with the exposure China's organ harvesting practice. He has even gone as far to comment that it was a poor decision to have the CCP host the Olympic Games.
Scott is not alone. Many organizations are calling to have China disqualified from holding the Olympic Games in 2008 in light of the brutal evidence these investigations have uncovered.
A Secret Everyone Knows
After the CCP's organ harvesting scheme was revealed, the news quickly spread overseas and has made a strong impact among people everywhere. Many readers wrote to The Epoch Times regarding this issue, voicing their condemnation of the CCP and its crimes.
When one Chinese-American returned to Shenyang City, in northeast China's Liaoning province, he spoke with a taxi driver about the reports he had heard abroad explaining how Falun Gong practitioners' organs were being harvested while they were still alive. This was not news to the driver, however, who said that the locals had long known all about it.
Many Falun Gong practitioners who were detained in labor camps recalled that they were subjected to physical examinations while other prisoners were not.
A surfer from Guangdong Province posted an online article about the organ trade in that region. It read, "The army's participation in the sale of kidneys is really true. From the 1980s through the 1990s, twice a year in the spring and fall, Guangdong would have a public security cleaning, which would consist of executing a large number of prisoners in order to supply the organ trade.
The army controls over 90 percent of the kidney trafficking, and their advertisements for organs can be seen from Hong Kong to the Middle East. Nurses and doctors were sent to Hong Kong and Shenzhen every year to round up patients in need of a transplant. Overseas transplant teams would take annual trips to hospitals in the south of China, and would receive upwards of 300,000 yuan (US$38,814) for their efforts. In Guangdong, this affair is not even a secret."
According to the first investigation report, since the summer of 1999—when persecution against Falun Gong was initially launched—there have been at least 41,500 transplantable organs of unknown origin. The report concludes that all of these organs were harvested from Falun Gong practitioners.
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