Info Centre

Information Centre

Organ Transplants in China:Developments and Controversies

In the past year, allegations of organ harvesting from nonconsenting Falun Gong prisoners have emerged again, further raising concerns about possible abuses in China’s organ transplant industry. In December 2008, the UN Committee against Torture (UNCAT) indicated in its report on China that the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, had noted ‘‘an increase in
organ transplant operations coincides with the ‘beginning of the persecution of [Falun Gong practitioners],’ ’’ and had urged the Chinese government to provide ‘‘a full explanation of the source of organ transplants.’’

The Journey of Clarifying the Truth While Being Persecuted

On July 20, 1999, the then leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Jiang Zemin, banned the Falun Gong spiritual practice. At the beginning of the suppression, Jiang intended to eradicate Falun Gong in “three months.” Intelligence agents locked onto Falun Gong practitioners whom they thought to be “leaders,” and its propaganda machinery prepared potent fabrications to vilify Falun Gong and turn the public against it. In so many previous persecutions, these two steps alone were enough to break the backbone and spirit of any victim group.

After failing to eradicate Falun Gong in a quick way, CCP has largely remained quiet about Falun Gong in its state-run media over the last several years, making the impression that Falun Gong is no longer in existence in China. So, did Jiang and the CCP achieve their goal? Where are the practitioners in China? What do they do these days? With these questions in mind, Chinascope interviewed the editor of the Chinese website, minghui.org. Minghui, whose English counterpart is clearwisdom.net, is the primary website for Falun Gong practitioners to obtain Falun Gong related information, report their activities, and share their experiences with each other.

Dào: The Way, The Great Ultimate, or The Secret of the Universe

Lao Zi was a great philosopher, thinker, educator, and the founder of the Daoist school of thought in ancient China.

“Dao,” frequently written as “Tao,” literally means “The Way,” “The Great Ultimate,” or “The Secret of the Universe.”

China’s gruesome organ harvest. The whole world isn’t watching. Why not?

Practitioners of Falun Gong were forbidden to communicate openly. Yet as the guards motioned for them to begin walking, Wang felt the group fall into step like a gentle migrating herd. He looked down at the red earth, streaked with straw and human waste, to the barren mountains on the horizon. Whatever lay ahead, Wang knew they were not afraid.

The Falun Gong factor

I am not a Falun Gong practitioner. However, any difference in opinion over spiritual matters is, I feel, of little import when it comes to human rights.

Three lawyers detained for defending Falun Gong practitioners

Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) learned in mid-July that three lawyers in different locations in north-eastern China were detained over several weeks by local authorities.

The three, Liu Ruiping, Wang Yonghang, and Wang Ping, who have previously been harassed because of their work defending Falun Gong practitioners, were seized between July 2 and July 8 in Shandong and Liaoning Provinces.

Falun Gong survives assault by China

As some see it, Nostradamus’s most famous quatrain, predicting that the King of Terror would descend in July 1999, failed to come true, costing the prognosticator his credibility. To millions of Falun Gong practitioners in China, however, that prophecy has fulfilled itself with terrifying precision.