French TV Station Reports Chinese Communist Regime’s Organ Harvesting from Living People

On December 3, 2009, the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) held a conference in French Parliament about the Chinese Communist regime’s persecution of Falun Gong. Speakers at the conference included two members of French Parliament, the renowned French surgeon Francis Navarro, fellow of French medical Science Academy Yves Chapuis, representatives from Amnesty International and the World Organisation against Death Penalty, former Canadian Secretary of State for the Asia-Pacific region David Kilgour and former Head of Chinese Department at Radio France International (RFI) Wu Baozhang. French TV station TV5 made a six-minute special report on the subject, exposing the atrocity of the Chinese Communist regime’s killing of large number of Falun Gong practitioners for their organs for organ trade.

David Matas and David Kilgour on the TV

On January 7, 2010, TV presenters Michel Cymes and Marina Carrre d’Encausse reported the issue in their “Health Magazine” programme on the popular TV5 station. The following is a transcript of the programme content:

Programme presenter Marina Carrre d’Encausse asks reporter Claire Feinstein: You research Overseas health care for us and have encountered shocking news on the Chinese Communist regime’s organ trade?

Feinstein: Yes. Usually our understanding about the organ trade is like this: some people are very poor. Because of poverty, they have to sell their own organs, such as corneas and kidneys, to get a little income. This is what we call “organ transplant tourism”. These organs are bought at high prices by these rich people who are waiting for organ transplants. This organ transplant tourism is well developed in India, Philippines and Egypt. According to statistics, there were in fact 6,800 cases of kidney transplants last year, about 10% of the total amount of organ transplant tourism.

Programme presenter Michel Cymes: With regards to China, the boundary of terror is pushed much further?

Feinstein: Yes, much much further. A few years ago, the Chinese Communist regime confessed under international pressure that the main source of their organs is death row prisoners. This behaviour doesn’t conform to moral standards. But now they have gone much further. In 2006, at the request by the non-government organisation CIPFG, two outstanding Canadian lawyers, David Matas and former Canadian Secretary of State for the Asia-Pacific region David Kilgour, carried out an independent investigation. Surprisingly they saw that the number of organs traded in China currently far exceeds the number of executed prisoners. In fact, a bit of research touched on an absolutely alarming and outrageous public health scandal. The victims are Falun Gong practitioners. Falun Gong is a cultivation method in the Buddha school. Therefore they are all peaceful people. There are many Falun Gong practitioners in China. Since 1999, the Chinese Communist regime started its brutal persecution campaign against Falun Gong. The regime illegally imprisoned them in labour camps.

Marina Carrre d’Encausse: Do we have evidence to prove that this is fact?

Feinstein: Yes. The evidence collected by the two lawyers is really terrifying, especially from these doctors and military doctors who regretted their actions. They were sent to various concentration camps to carry out this gloomy duty. Often without anaesthetic, they took the corneas, the lungs, the kidneys and the heart from these detained people.

Marina Carrre d’Encausse: After the corpses were cremated, all evidence disappeared?

Feinstein: Yes. The bodies were burnt to cover up all traces. Their families never heard any news about them. Many of them even didn’t go through the judicial procedure. They just disappeared.

Marina Carrre d’Encausse: It is shocking that these concentration camps also detain other people, but only Falun Gong practitioners are subjected to blood tests.

Feinstein: The non-governmental organisation first sent out the warning that China has over three hundred of these kinds of concentration camps. 300,000 people are detained there, among them 150,000 are Falun Gong practitioners. Only Falun Gong practitioners are subjected to comprehensive blood tests. This action is actually to find matching organs among the detainees for the potential organ customers.

Michel Cymes: The two lawyers you mentioned, they found the evidence?

Feinstein: They actually published their investigation Bloody Harvest. They collected fifty-two pieces of evidence and testimonies. Among them are doctors and victims who miraculously escaped from the concentration camps. They also have investigative telephone records with doctors in the private and public hospitals in China. Doctors explained directly: When they need organs, they can conveniently get the organs. In fact Falun Gong practitioners have become an organ bank.

Michel Cymes: In fact the Chinese Communist regime made a mistake. They invited the renowned surgeon Francis Navarro to demonstrate organ transplants. Francis Navarro is the chief surgeon at the Liver and Digesting system transplant department in the medical centre of Montpelier University.

Feinstein: He was actually invited to train surgeons in China to do organ transplants because the French are very skilled in organ transplant. Then he was very surprised because the Chinese authorities gave him the exact date for organ transplant. This obviously means that the organ donor is live. Thus he thought the donor may be the recipient’s father, mother or sibling. So he demanded to see the donor, the organ recipient’s medical records and the detailed arrangement. But at this time his opposite party replied: “We don’t have any document because we don’t know who the donor is. You will have it the day you come.” He was very surprised. He learned with a bit of investigation that for this operation, in fact someone would be executed.

Marina Carrre d’Encausse: Before discussing the international response to this, it is necessary to mention that Professor Francis Navarro and a reporter wrote a book – he indeed carried out a wide and thorough investigation. This book will come out in several weeks. The response from the international community?

Feinstein: The first investigative report by the two Canadian lawyers came out just before the Beijing Olympics in 2006 and 2007. There are not many real responses from the international community. There are some complaints, but only that.

Michel Cymes: A cornea costs 30,000 US dollars, a liver $10,000, and a kidney $15,000!

Marina Carrre d’Encausse: We will discuss the issue again when Professor Navarro’s book come out.