Hope, strength and the courage to continue their lives were restored to three Taiwanese who underwent organ transplants in China, but they — and possibly many others that made the same trip — might be living with organs that were ripped out of political prisoners, most of whom belong to the banned Falun Gong, according to an award-winning documentary.
The documentary Human Harvest: China’s Illegal Organ Trade, directed by Leon Lee (李雲翔), a Canadian of Chinese descent, asserts that China’s organ transplant industry has nefarious links to the underbelly of Chinese law enforcement.
Lee said was skeptical when rumors surfaced in 2001 that Chinese authorities were harvesting the organs of political prisoners.
However, Lee said he was surprised to discover that Chinese hospitals are able to say with confidence they can match any sort of organ with any kind of blood type, adding that organ transplants are complicated affairs that necessitate complete matches in blood type, tissue antigen and other requirements between donor and recipient.
It is evident that the hospitals were able to source organs from somewhere, and the documentary attempted to piece together the entire process by interviewing patients, their family members and medical staff at hospitals, Lee said.
The documentary focuses on three Taiwanese who paid contacts to arrange organ transplants in China after having been on waiting lists in Taiwan, Lee said.
The three were surprised to find that many patients in the hospital were also waiting for organ transplants, Lee said.
They could not believe how many “live bodies” were being arranged for selection, family members of the patients said, adding that they were told any organ of any blood type could be provided, Lee said.
A man claiming to be a former member of the armed police force alleged in an interview that he saw a criminal taken to a hospital and have his organs extracted without being given an anesthetic, Lee said, adding that the man said the criminal had died within three hours of the procedure.
Lee said he also talked to a woman claiming to be the wife of a doctor who undertook transplant surgeries, adding that the doctor identified some of the “live body” donors he operated on as members of the Falun Gong organization.
The doctor had not been able to live with his conscience afterward and finally moved abroad, according to Lee.
A doctor from China’s Liaoning Province said that, in the past, many organs used to be harvested from criminals who had just been executed, but that now doctors prefer “live body” donors, Lee said.
It saves bullets and offers fresher organs while still in being in accordance with the regulation to “use anti-revolutionaries to benefit the economy” (對反革命份子進行經濟化的利用), the doctor said.
It was impossible to interview doctors or patients following this type of transplant surgery as doctors were too afraid to meet and some of the patients had already died, Lee said.
“Any direct evidence is still being kept under cover, as the entire surgical procedure is overseen by armed police forces,” Lee said.
Lee said that audiences would be able to draw their own conclusions as to whether Chinese hospitals were conducting “live body harvests.”
Taiwanese viewers should consider the possibility that the Chinese government might do the same to Taiwanese in the future, he said.
The film — which followed an eight-year investigation — was awarded last year’s Peabody Award.
Falun Gong lawyer group spokesperson Chu Wan-chi (朱婉琪) said the movement has been repressed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 1999, and over the past 16 years, the number of organ transplant centers in China has increased from 150 to more than 600.
China executes a maximum of 2,000 criminals per year, but transplant surgeries surpass 10,000 every year, begging the question of where the Chinese hospitals are sourcing their organs, Chu said.
Taiwan Association for International Care of Organ Transplants doctor Huang Chien-feng (黃千峰) said there are between 50,000 and 60,000 dialysis patients in Taiwan, adding that the numbers are nearly identical to the number of Chinese requiring dialysis.
The ease of organ transplants in China leads one to be suspicious of where they are sourcing the organs, Huang said, adding that he hoped the documentary would help promote legal organ donations in Taiwan.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS