The recent report “Organ Procurement and Extrajudicial Execution in China: A Review of the Evidence” by researcher Matthew Robertson presents compelling evidence that China’s longstanding crimes against humanity are ongoing, despite years of denial. The report, released by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, outlines the evidence and serves as a call to action.
Although Falun Gong practitioners have been the primary group targeted for organ harvesting, more recently it appears Uyghurs Muslims have been as well. Radio Free Asia notes as many as 1.8 million Uyghurs have been detained in camps with “reports of blood-testing, DNA typing, and the shipment of detainees to the Chinese interior by rail.”
China has used its powerful propaganda machine and financial resources to exert tremendous influence over global media, organizations, and governments. As a result, the validity of the evidence for forced organ harvesting collected over many years is often debated or ignored. Robertson hopes this report will act as a catalyst for the world to take action against China’s transplant crimes.
Using a broad but thorough approach, Robertson details the history of China’s organ transplant system, pointing to the sudden rise in organ transplants starting in the year 2000, just one year after the Chinese government began persecuting Falun Gong. “In the year 2000, the transplant system basically exploded in activity. Thousands of doctors and nurses were trained. The number of hospitals that were doing transplants went from less than 199 to up to 1,000 by 2000.”
Despite death penalty executions decreasing during this time period, the Chinese government has claimed that organs were sourced from executed prisoners. They also claimed that organs were obtained from voluntary donors, yet for cultural reasons, few Chinese people donate their organs.
The report highlights transplantation surgeries in China being scheduled in advance, something unheard of in countries with voluntary organ donation systems. In addition, organs have been procured within remarkably short time periods. “The most striking demonstration of instant organ availability can be found in the phenomenon of “emergency” transplantation: China’s ability to source livers within 4, 24, or 72 hours, according to China’s own Liver Transplant Registry,” says Robertson.
Despite ample evidence of forced organ harvesting, the international community has yet to address these crimes in earnest. The Epoch Times states that, “Meanwhile, international human rights organizations have, for a variety of reasons, mostly not engaged on the topic. The main media outlets and academic studies of China have remained silent.”
An article in the National Review, which questions how the international community could trust communist China to be honest, notes that the world’s silence has only served to worsen an already dire situation. “The silence has also emboldened Beijing. Free from global criticism, Communist officials hardly bother to explain the discrepancies and shortcomings in their transplant data or to provide real figures. China is also becoming less worried about people linking transplants to the oppression of the Falun Gong and the Uighurs.”
Robertson says, “The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation publishes this research in the hope it will bring attention to and careful consideration of these longstanding allegations, and that it may at last precipitate not only a shift in the terms of debate on this issue, but long-overdue U.S. and international governmental investigation and action.”
Now that the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the deceitful, self-serving nature of the Chinese Communist Party to the entire world, it is time to openly acknowledge, condemn, and stop the state-sanctioned forced live organ harvesting of innocent prisoners of conscience in China.
