In August/ September 2009, various news agencies report about ongoing organ trafficking in China. The news report that the ban of organ trafficking in China is not effective and that Chinese hospitals still depend on organ transplantation as budget factor. Once more it questions the source of the transplant organs as the discrepancy in the transplant figures remains unsolved.
RTL (German TV) reports that in the past 6 years officially only 130 organs were donated, whereas the annual transplantation figure amounts to 20,000 (estimated 120,000 transplantations in the past 6 years). AFP quotes an unnamed surgeon saying that transplants are still sold to foreigners who are willing to pay and that hospitals can fake their identities. Reuters reports that in the past 3 years the share of living transplants increased from 15% to 40%.