Last month, the British Broadcasting Company’s (BBC) World Service Discovery program aired a two-part radio show about transplant medicine in China. Award-winning investigative journalist Matthew Hill skillfully leads the listener through an accurate exposition of factual evidence supporting the contention that China has, for decades, used not just executed criminals, but also prisoners of conscience, including Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghurs, as sources for transplantable organs.
The first episode, China’s Organ Transplants – Who to Believe?, includes statements from the initial whistle blower (who first gave evidence in 2006), doctors, researchers and ethicists who have studied the issue for over a decade as well as interviews of previously detained Falun Gong practitioners who were forced to undergo medical examinations and blood testing despite being subjected to horrific tortures. Hill tells the story of an unethical and amoral medical industry directed and supported by the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party, and succeeds in pointing out how incongruent are those who accept China’s misrepresentations.
The second and final program, China’s Organ Transplants – Tourism and Transparency, brings into even sharper focus the disparity between ongoing evidence of foreign transplant tourism and imprudent opinions of international health and transplant officials, misled by CCP propaganda. Excerpts from a 2017 documentary produced by undercover South Korean TV reporters at one of China’s leading transplant hospitals clearly demonstrates that China continues to receive large numbers of transplant tourists annually. Hill suggests that the total lack of transparency surrounding China’s transplant industry should negate any statements made by Chinese transplant officials.
Shortly after the World Service Discovery program aired, BBC Points West reported on the controversy surrounding ties between the English city of Bristol with its “twin” city, Guangzhou, China. Revelations that hospitals in Guangzhou are harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience have triggered grave concern among British citizens, who are calling on Bristol’s council to place human rights above commerce by cutting ties with Guangzhou.
