Suspicious Sources of Transplanted Organs in China Reveal A Communist Party-Orchestrated National Crime

After exposing the Chinese Communist regime’s atrocities of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners, as reported on March 8th, 2006, many people condemned the evil acts in China. Independent groups were spontaneously formed to conduct investigations into the matter.

This article includes the data that was published by the Chinese government agencies obtained through the investigation by people from all walks of life, the World Organisation to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) and independent investigation groups. This data reveals the highly suspicious origins of transplant organs in China; to date, the most reasonable explanation points to the Communist regime maintaining live organ banks, in all likelihood consisting of numerous incarcerated Falun Gong practitioners whose organs are harvested on demand.

1. The Number of Transplanted Organs in China Are Extremely Large in Recent Years

(1) According to an incomplete estimate by the Chinese Medical Association, up until 2003, more than 55,000 organ transplants were completed in China; more than 50,000 of those were kidney transplants. Currently, 5,000 transplants are performed each year. In the year 2001, 106 registered institutions performed 5,561 kidney transplants. More than 7,000 kidney transplants were completed in 2004, and only several hundred of those came from family donors, accounting for 40f all transplant surgeries.

Only 78 liver transplants were performed during the eight years between 1991 and 1998. This number has increased rapidly since then: 118 liver transplants were carried out in 1999, followed by 254 surgeries in 2000, 486 in 2001, 996 in 2002, and more than 1,300 surgeries in 2003.

(2) According to statistics published by the China Ministry of Health, 59,540 kidney transplants, 6,125 liver transplants and 248 heart transplants were performed between 1993 and 2005, and the numbers increase every year. In 2005 alone, more than 2,700 liver transplants and nearly 6,000 kidney transplants were performed. The total number of all transplants approached 10,000 last year (2006) if one includes bone marrow transplants, cornea transplants and other types of transplants.

(3) Huang Jiefu, Deputy Minister of Health announced at a discussion forum that more than 500 hospitals in Mainland China currently offer liver transplants. The annual number of liver transplants is around 3,500. According to an insider, however, the actual number is at least three times the official number. The amount of liver transplants increased drastically throughout the country after 1999.

(4) Independent third party investigations also serve as a good evidence. David Kilgour, former Canadian Secretary of State for the Asia-Pacific region and renowned human rights lawyer David Matas announced on May 8, 2006 they were going to conduct an independent investigation. They indicated in their report published on July 6, 2006, that since the Communist regime started to persecute Falun Gong, "the source of organs for 41,500 transplants for the six year period 2000 and 2005 is unexplained." ("Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China") The number of organ transplant cases has more than tripled in the period between 2000 and 2005 to a shocking 60,000 surgeries, compared to the number in the five years before 1999. Those organs were not all from voluntary donations. The report states the answer must lie in harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners.

The above statistics represent only an incomplete and conservative estimate; the actual number of transplants far exceeds those listed above. Although the Chinese Communist regime "invited" international investigations, Chinese consulates repeatedly denied visas to third party investigators whose goal was to conduct independent, on-site investigations in China.

Examples of massive numbers of organ transplant surgeries

(1) Organ Transplants Emerge in Batches in China

Free liver and kidney transplants in Hunan hospital

An article entitled "20 Free Organ Transplants" published in the April 28th, 2006 issue of the Xiaoxiang Morning News in Hunan Province stated that the Hunan Province People’s Hospital would provide free liver and kidney transplants for 20 people. Patients who wanted to receive this service were advised to call a hotline to register their names. It was learnt that the same hospital also publicised this information through the Changsha Evening News, Hunan Economic TV station and other media.

The report raised eyebrows as well as suspicion. In a society where it’s difficult to even get a free meal, not to mention a free room, Hunan Province People’s Hospital is making available free human livers and human kidneys. Where do these organs come from?

Oriental Organ Transplant Centre (OOTC) in Tianjin City performed as many as 24 liver-and-kidney transplants in one day

According to Chinese media, Shen Zhongyang, director of the Oriental Organ Transplant Centre (OOTC) and head of the Liver Transplant Research Institute at the General Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army performed only 80 liver transplants in several years prior to October 2000. In 2001, however, he performed 109 liver transplants and 80 kidney transplants. On March 17th, 2005, Shen Zhongyang completed his 1,600th liver transplant, a top number in the world. It explained that Shen Zhongyang had performed 1,520 liver transplants in four years and five months, which averages almost one transplant a day. In 2005 alone, 647 orthotopic liver transplants, 436 kidney transplants, 21 combined liver-kidney transplants and two combined pancreas-kidney transplants were carried out at the OOTC, "breaking numerous records in the military and in the country." An average of 3.3 transplants were performed each day. This "world leading" level is impossible to achieve without a large live organ bank. Shen Zhongyang stated during a press interview on December 30th, 2005 that 53 liver transplants were performed in a two-week period, between December 16th, 2005 and December 30, 2005. One patient’s family revealed that as many as 24 liver and kidney transplants were once performed in one day at the OOTC, which means organs are readily available and came in batches.

Shocking numbers of transplants in military and police hospitals

According to one investigation, the majority of the more than 150 military hospitals in China have performed organ transplants. The hospital websites reveal a shocking number of transplants having been performed at these hospitals. Below are a few examples:

Changzheng Hospital of the Second Military Medical University is a flagship institution, taking the lead in organ transplants in the military. Published numbers claim 2,800 kidney transplants and about 300 liver transplants have been completed at this hospital. Sixteen liver transplants and 15 kidney transplants were carried out at the hospital within nine days, between April 22md and April 30th, 2005. The hospital website boasts to have "set a new record in completing a high number of transplants in a specific time frame."

The Organ Transplant Centre's website at the No. 2 Institute of the PLA General Hospital introduced transplant centre director Shi Bingyi who has completed 1,200 kidney transplants, 1,111 liver transplants, two heart transplants, two combined pancreas-kidney transplants, two combined liver-kidney transplants, and five stem cell transplants.

The General Logistics Department had in 2005 approved the Southwest Hepato-Biliary Surgery Hospital affiliated with the Third Military Medical University in Chongqing City to become a liver transplant centre for the PLA. The hospital first started to perform liver transplants in 1999. It receives more than 3,000 patients diagnosed with liver, gallbladder and pancreatic diseases and performs more than 2,400 transplants every year.

"Outstanding" achievement in organ transplants in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province

According to an April 19th, 2006 report by the Henan Newspaper Network Centre, Zhang Shuijun, chairman of Henan Province Organ Transplantation Society and vice president of the No. 1 Hospital Affiliated with Zhenzhou University described the current situation of organ transplants in the province as "blossoming everywhere."

You can find the following information on the websites of various organ transplant centres in Zhenzhou City, Henan Province:

Zhongyuan Kidney Transplant Cooperation Centre at Zhengzhou City Central Hospital:

(this advertisement appeared around May 1, 2004) "Our centre has completed 14 kidney transplants during the May 1st holiday. We recently have a rich supply of kidneys and welcome questions from patients;" "Cai Xianan, director of the Transplant Cooperation Centre has personally led or participated in more than 800 kidney transplants with a 100uccess rate."

Zhongnan Kidney Transplant Cooperation Centre at the Zhengzhou Third Hospital: "In the past few years, our centre has performed more than 100 kidney transplants annually."

Huazhong Organ Transplant Cooperation Centre at the Zhengzhou City Fifth Hospital:

"2005 was a prosperous year at our centre. Aside from completing three liver transplants in a row at the beginning of the year, we also set a record of completing nine transplants in one day, and 120 kidney transplants in a year…"

Zhengzhou City Kidney Transplant Centre at Zhengzhou Seventh Hospital:

"We completed 114 kidney transplants in 2003. We successfully carried out 28 kidney transplants in January 2004, laying a solid foundation for striving toward our goal of completing 150 kidney transplants in the year 2004…In the past few years we have completed more than 100 kidney transplants annually with a 100uccess rate."

Chinese Military Huazhong Kidney Transplant Centre at PLA 460 Hospital (address: No. 10 Huzhu Road, Zhenzhou City, Henan Province):

"For three years in a row, our centre has completed more than 100 kidney transplants in one year." "103 kidney transplants were completed in 2002," "… many patients from all around the world had recently contacted us through various channels regarding kidney transplants. Hereby we want to assure you that we have an ample supply of kidneys and welcome you to visit us for a timely diagnosis and treatment."

Recently, Zhengzhou City Fifth Hospital again made headline news: "as eye banks throughout China experience shortages of eyeballs, 38 eyeballs are waiting for new owners at the Ophthalmic Centre, Zhengzhou Fifth Hospital." (as reported in the October 26, 2006 issue of the Orient Today newspaper)

(2) More than 10,000 people from other countries come to China each year for organ transplants

Besides the organ transplants for people in China, patients from Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, India, Israel, Egypt, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and other places in the world go to China to receive transplants. Agents emerged for this business. In Taiwan, the agents introduce Taiwanese patients to hospitals in China. These agents charge as much as 15,000 U.S. Dollars per patient for their referral fee. According to a report in the Korean newspaper Chosunilbo, sometimes as many as 1,000 Korean patients receive organ transplants in Mainland China annually. According to an Israeli media, about 30 Israelis travel to China every month for organ transplants. Some experts found that between 3,000 and 5,000 Taiwanese people go to China each year for organ transplants arranged through agents. The British newspaper The Independent reported on March 21st, 2006 that "a single broker has helped more than a hundred Japanese people go to China for transplants since 2004."

Patients arriving at the Zhejiang Province No. 1 People’s Hospital in Hangzhou City come from all different parts of the world.

850f the patients who undergo organ transplants at the OOTC in Tianjin City come from outside Mainland China. They were from 20 countries and regions including Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Egypt, Palestine, India, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan and other locations.

2. Organ Matching is Amazingly Quick

Many Chinese hospitals openly claim on their websites that the wait time at their hospital is much shorter than anywhere else in the world; a matching organ can be found within a month, a few weeks or even one or two days. Please read the following examples.

(1) Heart Transplant

Heart transplant surgery is a difficult procedure. Far fewer hospitals in China are capable of performing heart transplants than hospitals that provide other types of transplants. In addition, heart transplants must be completed less than four or six hours after the heart leaves the donor’s body. Without readily available donors and tissue matches performed ahead of time, the probability of performing a heart transplant following spontaneous tissue matching with an unexpected accident victim, all within four to six hours, is next to impossible.

Matching heart found in one day at the No. 2 Hospital Affiliated with Jilin University

According to one report published on March 4th, 2006 in the New Culture Newspaper a woman named Xie Baoshi from Wenzhou City accompanied by her brother went to the Heart Surgery Department at the No. 2 Hospital Affiliated with Jilin University on February 27th, 2006 for an examination. The doctor told her that her life expectancy would be less than three months if she did not receive a heart transplant. The heart transplant was performed on her the very next day, on February 28th, 2006. The hospital found a matching heart for the patient within only one day. The report did not mention the organ source.

New records at the Xijing Hospital Affiliated with the Fourth Military Medical University of the PLA

Dr. Wang Hongbing at the Cardiovascular Surgery Department at the Xijing Hospital Affiliated with the Fourth Military Medical University of the PLA topped the existing national record when he performed three heart transplants in one day. Dr. Cai Zhenjie, the current director of the Cardiovascular Disease Research Institute at the General Hospital of the Armed Police Forces also set a new record. He had for a long time been director of the Cardiovascular Surgery Research Institute at the Fourth Military Medical University of PLA. His record: performing three heart transplant surgeries in one day, in September 2003.

(2) Liver Transplants

By a liver transplant we mean a whole liver transplant. As each person has only one liver. The donor cannot survive after his liver is removed. The rapidly increasing number of whole liver transplants in recent years is disturbing.

Kidney and liver found in one day

Case 1: According to a report in the Nanfang Daily newspaper, 36-year-old Ren Zhenchao from Hainan Province checked into The Third Affiliated Hospital at Sun Yat-sen University on April 18th, 2006 due to liver disease. After he was injected with counterfeit armillarisin (an antibiotic) produced by the No. 2 Pharmaceutical Company in Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province, he went into acute kidney failure on April 30th, 2006 and experienced symptoms such as edema and inability to produce urine. In early May, he developed serious symptoms of brain dysfunction caused by liver disease and became agitated and disoriented. He ranted and raved incoherently day and night. Medical experts examined him on May 16th and determined the patient would die quickly if he didn’t receive a combined liver-kidney transplant soon. The hospital then started looking for a matching donor.

The report says, "Unbelievable--only one day later, good news came from another province that a matching liver and kidney had been found. The liver and kidney were airlifted to Guangzhou City at 6:00 p.m. on May 17th." The surgery began at 8:00 p.m. Chen Guihua, director of The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University and director of the Liver Transplant Centre performed the liver transplant and Hong Liang performed the kidney transplant. The surgery was successfully completed after eight hours.

Another combined liver-kidney transplant was performed at the same hospital one day later. Chen Guihua has completed more than 1,000 liver and kidney transplants including 246 transplants in 2005.

"Fresh" liver with rare blood type found in 24 days

An article entitled "Successful Liver Transplant for Woman with Rare Blood Type" was published in the June 6th, 2006 issue of the Hebei Science Newspaper. According to the report, 45-year-old Ms. Pei developed liver cirrhosis 14 years ago and underwent a splenectomy surgery 12 years ago. As her health steadily deteriorated, she also developed complications including the brain dysfunction caused by liver disease, hepatic myelopathy and recurrent hepatic coma. Her blood type is RH- AB, which occurs in only two out of every 1,000 people.

The patient checked into the No. 1 General Surgery Department at the Handan City Central Hospital on April 18th, 2006. While preparing for surgery, the medical staff started looking for blood and a liver that matched her rare blood type. The liver transplant procedure began at 8 p.m. on May 11th, 2006 and a "fresh" liver was successfully transplanted into the patient at 5:00 a.m. the next day. After surgery, all of her laboratory readings returned to normal. The Handan City Central Hospital had found a "fresh" liver with a rare blood type within 24 days.

(3) Comparison with Foreign Countries

As of 2003, the median waiting time for all types of transplants in Canada was 32.5 months, and 52.5 months in British Columbia. The wait time to receive an organ in the U.S. is several years. The average waiting time for a kidney is about five years. It usually takes at least two years to receive a matching organ in foreign countries, which sharply contrasts with the lightning speed at which procurement of organs take place in China.

The organ donation system in several foreign countries is well developed. For example, a large number of people in the USA are willing to donate their organs. Nearly all adults in the USA have a driver’s licenses. When people apply for a driver’s license, they are questioned if they want to donate their organs and which organs they would donate in the case of a sudden traffic accident death. The answers are entered into a national database and also recorded on someone's driver's license. One report stated that 300f Americans (about 84 million people) have signed documents to donate their organs after death. Because of highly advanced medical technology, the U.S. Government documents the blood type and other similar information of nearly everyone in the country receiving medical care. This information is stored in a database, and is accessible at any time.

In actuality, most voluntary organ donors in the U.S. are victims killed in traffic accidents. At the scene of each traffic accident the police first check for casualties. When a death is confirmed, the police immediately look at the victim’s driver’s license. If the victim is a registered organ donor the police call for a medical services helicopter. The medical personnel arriving with the helicopter then quickly remove the victim’s organ(s) and rush them to a hospital, to be readied for transplant into a critically ill patient. This process requires a nationwide rapid response system, close cooperation between the police and hospitals, fast and modern transportation equipment. It further requires highly qualified nation-wide medical teams and a database from which a medical team can locate the nearest hospital where there is a need for the specific organ(s) they had just removed, as "live" organs cannot remain usable for long. China is far from meeting all of these conditions.

Considering all these facts, it is highly abnormal that the time frame for obtaining a matching organ in China is far less than in the USA where a well-developed system of organ donations and transplant procedures is in place.

3. Strict Medical Protocol for World Organ Transplant Practise

Speaking from a medical perspective, the donor organ must match the recipient’s biological profile to prevent the antibodies of the recipient from attacking the donor’s organ. However, it’s not easy to find a matching donor. To reduce the immunity rejection response, first, the donor and recipient's blood type (ABO) must match; Negative Panel Reactive Antibody (PRA) is preferred; the result of lympho-cytotoxicity test for a platelet cross-match must be negative, or less than 10%, and the purpose of any lympho-cytotoxicity test is to determine the suitability between the recipient’s plasma cells and the donor’s lymphatic cells; the lymph cell transformation rate in mixed lymphocyte culture must be less than 200r 30%, which takes five to six days to obtain these test results, and has therefore limited application. HLA tissue type match is the main determinant alluding to the survival of a donor organ in the recipient. (Every person has six groups of HLA antigens that are commonly used for matching transplant tissues: HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-C, HLA-DR, HLA-DQ, and HLA-DP.) Mutation, recombination and gene conversion all contribute to the generation of considerable HLA variability. It is almost impossible to find two people with identical HLA among people who are not first-degree relatives. Therefore, a match between an unrelated donor and a recipient is usually imperfect. Still, in the USA it takes two or more years to get an imperfectly matched organ. Once it has been confirmed that an organ is transplantable, a more specific cross-match between the donor and recipient will be conducted.

Skin and cornea can be removed after death and stored and transported in a frozen state. By contrast, internal organs such as hearts, kidneys and livers are sensitive to the "warm ischemia time." The key element that determines the survival of the transplanted organ is the warm ischemia time�"the shorter the better. In order to achieve this goal, these organs must be removed right after death, or when the donor is still alive. Kidneys must be transplanted within 12 to 24 hours; livers must be transplanted within 12 hours, and hearts must be transplanted within four to six hours, otherwise, the successful rate of organ transplant will be greatly impacted.

It stands to reason then that the random number of accident victims cannot meet the demand for organs. Each person has only one heart and one liver. The donor cannot survive after either organ is removed, which means successfully matched healthy hearts and livers depend on non-accidental death.

The chance for obtaining an incompletely matched organ between non-relatives is around 1%. It requires a pool of 300 or 400 donors to find one incompletely matched organ. Judging from the news reports about organ transplant surgery, most organs were procured locally within a few hours, which means a large number of big live organ banks must exist in various parts of the country to be able to supply the annual 3,500 liver transplants, although the actual number of liver transplants is more than 10,000 a year.

Heart transplant surgery is a difficult procedure, adding to the fact is it must be performed within four to six hours after the heart leaves the donor’s body. It is nearly impossible to perform a heart transplant on short notice following an accident without prior matching between donors and patients, yet China does not have a nationwide blood type data bank for people in China.

4. Where is the Source of the Super-rich Organ Supply in China?

"According to public reports, prior to 1999, Chinese facilities performed approximately 30,000 transplants and previously another 18,500 in the six-year period between 1994 and 1999. Professor Shi Bingyi, vice-chair of the China Medical Organ Transplant Association said as of 2005, there were about 90,000 in total leaving approximately 60,000 in the six year period between 2000 and 2005 since the persecution of Falun Gong began."

"Presumably the identified sources for organs that led to 18,500 organ transplants in the six year period between 1994 and 1999, that same source must have produced the same number of organs for transplants in the next six year period, 2000 to 2005. That means that the source of 41,500 organs for transplants for the six year period 2000 to 2005 is unexplained." ("Allegations of Organ Harvesting from Falun Gong Practitioners in China")

The explanation of organ donation does not hold ground, as voluntary donations from non-relatives in China are extremely rare. A report in the Southern Metropolitan News on July 22nd, 2006 made this point: "…to date, China has completed 21 incidents of organ donations with a total of 88 organs donated. Fifty percent of the donors come from the Guangdong region."

Deputy Health Minister Huang Jiefu, who represented the Chinese government, admitted on November 9th, 2005 at a Manila-held WHO meeting that at present most organs China uses for transplant come from death-row convicts.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Health admitted that besides the 2 donated organs, it has no control over the sources of the other 980f organs used in transplants. There is definitely more to this admission than appears on the surface.

In March 2004, the China Youth Daily newspaper reported that representatives at the National People's Congress stated there are about 10,000 executions every year in China, while the representatives urged the Supreme Court to review all death penalty cases. Although last year’s official report recorded less than 1,100 executions--of course the actual number of executions is a top secret in China--how many of these estimated 10,000 prisoners on death row that were executed would willingly donate their organs? Due to the traditional Chinese notion that "one should keep one’s body intact after death," very few Chinese are willing to sell or donate their organs. According to insiders, less than 50f the prisoners or their families were willing to donate organs, and no more than 50f the corpses were unclaimed. Based on this data, only about 1,000 prison cadavers can annually provide organs in China.

Obviously, voluntary donations and executed prisoners account for only a small percentage of the startling number of transplants performed at break-neck speed in China, even if we include organs harvested from victims of organised crime. In other words, there is a secret, huge live organ bank, the organs originating with a different type of "executed prisoners," controlled by another state agency much more powerful than the Ministry of Health. This organ bank is accessible at all times. This source supplies "the majority (98%) of transplanted organs."

The existence of the secret live organ bank of "executed prisoners" and who is the controller behind the curtain for the source of 980rgans is the key to organ transplants in China.

5. State Controlled, Large "Live Organ Bank"

Because of practical difficulties in organ transplant procedures, and the heart and liver are key organs that one can’t live without it, the fact that China does not have a national system of organ donation and abides by cultural factors that result in unwillingness to donate organs after death, the above-stated abnormal shocking data could only be explained by one thing: there is a controlled huge live organ bank in China. Victims held in this organ bank are waiting for matching patients (while in other countries it is the patients who wait for a matching organ). This huge "live organ bank" possesses the following characteristics:

(a) State controlled

(b) Victims do not have personal freedom, do not have safeguards of personal safety and their organs can be harvested at any time

(c) The victims’ blood types and other key information are assessed beforehand and stored in a database

(d) When a patient arrives at a hospital, the victim with matching organ(s) is carved up for organ(s)

(e) The actual organ harvesting takes place within the military and police system

This "live organ bank" is an open secret for many insiders, particularly doctors. A doctor at the Changzheng Hospital of the Second Military Medical University said to an investigator posing as a patient, "We have state-controlled [organ] source(s). How can I explain it…only the doctors know."

The China International Transplantation Network Assistance Centre (CITNAC) in Shenyang City attracts international business. The section entitled "The actual situation of organ transplant in China" on the CITNAC website points out, "Right now, the number of transplant surgeries completed in China each year is next only to the U.S.; therefore, China can be called the second largest transplant country in the world." "The ability to complete so many transplant surgeries is inseparable from the support of the Chinese government. The Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Civil Affairs jointly announced related laws on October 9th, 1984, which affirms that "…acts of governmental support are providing organs." "This is the one and only in the world..." [these words were deleted after the exposure of organ harvesting]

The Oriental Organ Transplantation Centre (OOTC) in Tianjin City once advertised itself to the world in five languages and also announced on its website, "The amazing number of organ transplant surgeries has to be completely attributable to the support of the government. The Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Civil Affairs jointly announced a law to ensure that the government supports and guarantees organ donation. This is without comparison in the world." [these words were deleted after the exposure of organ harvesting]

6. Most Victims Held in Live Organ Banks Are Falun Gong Practitioners

Jiang Zemin had once issued a secret order, "No measure is excessive in dealing with Falun Gong." The Chinese Communist regime’s internal policies have long since permitted harvesting of organs from live Falun Gong practitioners, which means the Communist regime legalised the harvesting of organs from live Falun Gong practitioners while at the same time keeping the public in the dark about the source of organs.

(1) The increase of organ transplant surgeries in China matches the escalation of the persecution of Falun Gong. The Kilgour and Matas report points out: "There appeared to be only 22 liver transplant centres operating across China before 1999, compared to fully 500 in mid-April 2006. The total number of liver transplant operations in all of China appeared to be 135 by 1998, contrasted with more than 4,000 in 2005 alone. For kidneys, the pattern is also significant (3,596 transplants in 1998 and nearly 10,000 in 2005)."

Deputy Health Minister Huang Jiefu announced at a discussion forum that currently, more than 500 hospitals in China perform about 3,500 liver transplants on an annual basis, although insiders reveal the actual number is at least three times the official data. In other words, liver transplants increased exponentially after the persecution began in 1999.

(2) Blood tests and physical exams: we learnt that incarcerated Falun Gong practitioners were subjected to systematic blood tests and physical exams, which we have verified through a considerable number of testimonials by Falun Gong practitioners, speaking from firsthand experience. Why are Falun Gong practitioners singled out for these tests and exams and not the other detainees?

The answer is that the Communist regime ensures the "quality" of supplies in the organ bank by assessing the health of Falun Gong practitioners and ensures compatibility by getting blood type and other relevant information to avoid the recipient’s antibodies from rejecting the organ after transplant surgery.

(3) Witnesses emerge. The saying goes, "What's done in the dark will come to light." On December 22nd, 2000 an article entitled "Evil Policemen Scheme to Sell the Organs of Jailed Falun Gong Practitioners" was published on the Minghui website. "Some evil police officers in Mainland China are plotting with greedy doctors, looking to sell organs of Falun Gong practitioners for huge sums of money. Needless to say, their plans are cruel and heartless to the extreme. One source indicates that a certain hospital in the city of Shijiazhuang specialising in Chinese medicine has been allocated six such quotes." Unfortunately, this information did not catch enough attention at the time. The dark curtain was finally torn open in March 2006.

A journalist named "Peter" revealed on March 8th, 2006 that there is a secret prison in Sujiatun, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province where more than 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners were held. No one has left the prison alive. The practitioners were killed, but not before their organs were removed and delivered to various medical facilities to be sold to make huge profits. The practitioners’ bodies were then incinerated to destroy evidence.

Another witness, "Annie," who worked at the Sujiatun Thrombus Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine came forward on March 17th, 2006. She revealed that 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners were held at a secret concentration camp inside the hospital in 2001, and no one has left alive. Her ex-husband was a surgeon at the hospital who had personally removed corneas from more than 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners during two years before October 2003. None of the 2,000 practitioners survived, because other doctors removed the organs from the live victims. Even their bone marrow, hair, skin and fat were removed and sold, and in the end their bodies were burned in a crematorium. This "operation" began in 2001 and peaked in 2002.

Shortly afterwards, another witness who identified himself as "a veteran military doctor in the General Logistics Department of the Shenyang Military Region" stepped forward on March 31st, 2006. He pointed out that the Sujiatun Concentration Camp indeed exists; organ harvesting and cremation of bodies were done routinely there; and some were even cremated while still alive. He stated that the Sujiatun hospital is merely one of 36 similar concentration camps.

The veteran military doctor indicated, "From the information I have access to, the largest concentration camp is in Jilin Province. The concentration camp is code-named 672-S and imprisons more than 120,000 people. A large number of Falun Gong practitioners, felons and prisoners of conscience from all over China are there, but I do not know its address." "Right now, Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces imprison the largest number of Falun Gong practitioners. The concentration camp in the Jiutai Area of Jilin Province is the 5th largest camp imprisoning Falun Gong practitioners. This camp alone detains over 14,000 Falun Gong practitioners."

"Many people pay a lot of attention to the transplant statistics officially announced by the government. Actually, "underground" organ transplants are many times that of the number the regime publicises. For example, if the regime says that there are 30,000 surgeries a year, then the real number is about 110,000, which is also the key reason why the prices for organ transplants have decreased dramatically. Because of the abundance of organ sources, many hospitals under the jurisdiction of the military -while reporting some transplants to the central government and the public - are actually conducting a large number of organ transplants in secret. The result is the real number is much higher than government statistics."

None of these three witnesses are Falun Gong practitioners.

(4) Independent third-party investigation: Although the Communist regime "invited" investigation from the international community, Chinese consulates have denied visas to independent third party investigators whose goal was to conduct on-site investigations in China.

David Kilgour, former Secretary of State of Canada and renowned human rights lawyer David Matas announced that they would initiate an independent investigation on May 8th, 2006 and they published their investigation report on July 6th, 2006.

After two months of investigations and evidence collection, the two independent investigators, Mr. Kilgour and Matas, reached their conclusions through assessment of 18 different elements of proof or disproof, "Based on what we now know, we have come to the regrettable conclusion that the allegations are true. We believe that there has been and continues today to be large-scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners."

"We have concluded that the government of China and its agencies in numerous parts of the country, in particular the hospitals but also detention centres and people's courts have since 1999 put to death a large but unknown number of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience. Their vital organs, including hearts, kidneys, livers and corneas were simultaneously and involuntarily seized for sale at high prices, sometimes to foreigners who normally face long waits for voluntary donations of such organs in their home countries." "[There were] about 60,000 in the six year period 2000 to 2005 since the persecution of Falun Gong began," more than three times the number of transplants in the preceding five year period�"18,500 transplants from 1994 to 1999. "Which means the source of 41,500 transplants for the six year period 2000 to 2005 is unexplained." The report says the allegation of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners provides an answer.

7. Chinese Communist regime cover-up and deception

The witnesses’ revelations shocked not only the international community but also the Communist regime. For the latter, deception and cover-up are oft-used tactics.

In an attempt to cover up the truth, some information on transplants-related Chinese websites was deleted or modified on March 9th, 2006, the day after the organ harvesting exposure report came to light.

For example, the passage praising the government's support for making the large quantity of organ transplants possible as stated on the website of the China International Transplantation Network Assistance Centre (CITNAC) in Shenyang City was removed.

The more than 1,000 liver transplants performed by Chen Guihua, director of The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University and director of the Liver Transplant Centre has shrunk to 100 transplants on the hospital's website.

The regime also transferred and destroyed evidence. After three weeks of silence, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emerged on March 28th and denied the existence of the Sujiatun Concentration Camp, at the same time "inviting" reporters to investigate in Sujiatun. Why not issue the invitation right after the exposure instead of three weeks later? Why doesn’t the Party make the denial known to the Chinese public through its mouthpiece media?

8. Three Chinese doctors involved in live organ harvesting and transplant surgeries served with criminal complaints in the USA

The 2006 World Transplant Congress (WTC) was held in Boston in late July 2006. Falun Gong practitioners filed criminal complaints against Chen Zhonghua, Deputy Committee Director of the Chinese Medical Association Organ Transplant Division and director of the Organ Transplant Research Institute at Tongji Medical School, the Huazhong University of Science and Technology on July 24nd, 2006. The defendants were charged with criminal offences as head perpetrators or accomplices in the harvesting of organs from living victims, including living Falun Gong practitioners and selling the organs for profit without the victims' consent. The harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners not only violates an anti-torture statute, but actually constitutes genocide, the most serious charge within the framework of international criminal law.

Another criminal complaint was filed on July 26th, 2006 against Shen Zhongyang, director of the Oriental Organ Transplantation Centre at The Number One Centre Hospital in Tianjin as he attended the WTC. The main reason for charging Shen Zhongyang came from evidence by doctors at his hospital who had admitted in recorded telephone conversations that sources for organs used in transplants included Falun Gong practitioners. Similar laws and conventions were applied in charging Shen Zhongyang as in the criminal complaint filed against Chen Zhonghua and Zhu Tongyu, including an U.S. anti-torture statute, Title 18, USC Section 2340; he was also cited with violation of the Convention Against Torture, ratified in the United States in 1994.

It is learnt that all three defendants left the USA soon after they were served with the criminal complaints.

Endnote

According to analysts, less than 10f all organs transplanted in China come from legitimate sources, and more than 990f organs come from suspicious or unknown sources--a violation of standards set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1991. In other words, the vast majority of transplanted organs in China were obtained illegally. The entire process is a state-orchestrated crime directed by the government, facilitated by the military with participation from the judicial, procuratorate, court and medical system.

We can deduce from the above data that there are huge live "organ banks" in China, mainly consisting of Falun Gong practitioners persecuted by the Communist regime. Some people say, "What does it have to do with me if the Communist Party takes organs from Falun Gong practitioners?" In fact, the CCP’s gory organ trade greatly affects everyone. The organ transplant trade in China is filled with blood and crime; women, children and underprivileged people are all targets of abduction and subsequent removal of organs by kidnappers. Some doctors excise patients’ organs after the patients pass away at a hospital, the organs of death row inmates are removed by the government agencies. Falun Gong practitioners, the main organ source, are carved up alive. The victims come from across all social strata, which means every victim’s family members, relatives or friends all have the possibility of becoming a victim.

In addition to the regime’s organ harvesting affecting every Chinese person, it also challenges the civilisation and morality and justice of the entire human race. The whole world should stand up to the Communist regime and oppose its practise of organ harvesting and end these state-orchestrated crimes.