By Yang Ning
A re-enactment of the communist regime in China harvesting organs from Falun Gong practitioners at a public rally in Tokyo on Sept. 13, 2006. (Clearwisdom.net)
Since 2006, China has made a name in the organ transplant field for speedy organ sourcing. For example, “kidney transplants from living people” was in 2004 listed on the FAQ section of the Shenyang-based First Hospital of China Medical University website. The announcements on the International Transplant (China) Web Support Center website (www.zoukiishoku.com) have since been removed. The site said “finding a matching source for liver transplants takes from about a month to two months; for kidney transplants it takes between a week and a month.”
With such unusually fast sourcing, the surgeries are expensive. The website included a price list that showed a kidney transplant for $60,000, a liver transplant for $100,000, and a lung or heart transplant costing over $150,000.
Such ads attracted patients from all over the world. According to a 2004 Life Week report, the Tianjin Oriental Organ Transplant Center conducted organ transplants for many wealthy Chinese people and officials, and tens of thousands of patients from abroad. “Besides Koreans, the Tianjin First Central Hospital also treated patients from nearly 20 Asian countries and regions, including Japan, Malaysia, Egypt, Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia, Amman, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan,” the report said.
The center’s director, Shen Zhongyang, also headed the Institute of Liver Transplantation of the Armed Police General Hospital. Shen’s announced work record provided a clue to the size of China’s organ transplant business. By April of 2004, Shen had conducted over 1,000 liver transplants. In March 2005, Shen conducted his 1600th liver transplant, a record rarely found in the world.
High prices coupled with low cost sources led to high profits. A July 18, 2007 article in Southern Weekend said, “The sky-rocketing business brought the Oriental Organ Transplant Center huge revenue. According to previous media reports, liver transplants alone contributed at least 100 million yuan (approximately $12 million in 2004) to the Center’s revenue.” A well-known military hospital, the 309th Hospital of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, said in its organ transplant center’s introduction that “the Organ Transplant Center is a key profit contributor for our unit, with a revenue of 16 million yuan in 2003 (approximately $2 million in 2003), and 13.5 million yuan in the first half of 2004. This year (2005) its revenue is expected to be higher than 30 million yuan.”
Transplants at Military Hospitals
Many articles have been found that are related to organ transplant operations involving doctors and nurses from military or armed police hospitals, or other military-affiliated hospitals. None of those expose the source of organs. These media reports include from publications such as:
Chinese Journal of Medicine (ISSN 1680-077X),
People’s Armed Police Medical Studies(ISSN 1004-3594),
Xinjiang Medical University Journal (ISSN 1009-5551),
People Medicine (ISSN: 1000-9736),
Ningxia Medicine (ISSN1001-5949),
Nursing Research (ISSN 1009-6493),
People’s Armed Police Medical Studies(ISSN 1004-3594),
Xinjiang Medical University Journal (ISSN 1009-5551),
People Medicine (ISSN: 1000-9736),
Ningxia Medicine (ISSN1001-5949),
Nursing Research (ISSN 1009-6493),
Organ transplants are mostly conducted by military or armed police hospitals, or other military hospitals. Organ transplantation is one of the most developed specialties in these military hospitals. According to an April 2006 Live Week report, “98 percent of China’s organ sources are controlled by non-Health Department related institutes,” meaning the military and armed police system. Reports appeared on many websites, but none explained the source of all the organs.
In a Xinhua report published in December 2008, Zhang Yanling, head of the General Logistics Department of the PLA and former director of the Second Military Medical University, said, “In 1978, only three Chinese military hospitals were capable of conducting kidney transplants. But now over 40 military hospitals, or a quarter of all Chinese military hospitals, can conduct liver, kidney, heart, lung, as well as multi-organ transplants.”
The 309th Hospital is the center for China’s official kidney transplant information system. The Health Department launched the “Chinese Scientific Registry of Kidney Transplantation” (CSRKT), www.csrkt.org in August 2008.
Non-military hospitals carrying out large-scale organ transplants are also affiliated with military hospitals in various ways: Either the chief physician has a close relationship with a military hospital, or is a military doctor. For example, the army established the Chinese Medical University to train military doctors. The university is still closely tied to the military. Shen Zhongyang, director of the Oriental Organ Transplant Center, was the head of the Institute of Liver Transplantation of the Armed Police General Hospital.
The overall development of organ transplantation in military hospitals came from the military’s access to ample live organ sources.
Sources of the Organs
Since the CCP established its rule in China in 1949, China’s military and police have participated in removing organs from executed death-row inmates. After Jiang Zemin initiated the persecution against Falun Gong in 1999, the industry found a fresh source.
According to a 2006 report titled “Bloody Harvest” by Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas and former Member of Parliament David Kilgour, the number of executed criminals in China was far from enough to fulfill all the need for organs in China. Their report estimated that 40,000 organ transplants used Falun Gong practitioners as targets for organ sourcing. This suggests why sources of organs were not made public in articles by the military and by doctors at the armed police general hospitals.
In 2006, an estimated 8,000 inmates were executed in China. More than 12,000 people received organ transplant surgeries in China. Where did the other 4,000 organs come from? The discrepancy appears to be tied to the persecution of Falun Gong.
There are two unusual changes in the number of transplants in China. The operations suddenly increased in 2000. In 2007, they sharply declined. In 2000, the persecution of Falun Gong just started, and in 2006, live organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners was first exposed internationally. Since then, the regulations on live organ harvesting became restrictive and operations were done more secretly. Under international pressure, China’s Ministry of Health released guidelines that restricted foreigners who came to China for organ transplants. However, the laws do not apply to the military, and such regulations were never effective in stopping the persecution against Falun Gong.
Outside of China, the wait time for an organ is normally at least one or two years. Chinese hospitals advertised wait times of one week to two months, which shows the abundance of fresh organs available in China. “Bloody Harvest” concluded that a healthy living group of people was made the immediate source for the organs, and the only group that fits the criteria is Falun Gong. The military has access to prisons. Armed police hospitals operate secretly in a way that civilian hospitals do not.
Crime Behind the Profits
The enormous profit gained by the military hospitals comes from “a form of evil we have yet to see on this planet,” wrote Matas. The driving force behind such inhumane crimes is the regime led by Jiang Zemin and Zhou Yongkang.
Chinese people have an ancient saying, “one good deed is returned with another; an evil deed awaits retribution; it is not that punishment will never arrive; the right time is yet to come.” Judging from the intensity of the current inner struggle of the CCP, this ancient saying is coming alive. Hopefully in the near future, truth will be known, and those who committed genocide will be brought to justice.
Read original Chinese article.
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大家都来看”九评共产党” ( VCD, 书)!
Let’s find “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party”(VCD, books)!
快上大纪元声明退出共产党和共产党其它组织(/团/队)，抹去邪恶的印记!
Quit the Evil Chinese Communist Party or its affiliated organizations today!
