China Claimed to Be a "Global Center for Organ Transplant"

The news of concentration camps and organ harvesting in China was first reported by the Epoch Times newspaper more than a month ago. Media advisories were sent by Falun Dafa Association all around the world. However, the majority of media outlets have not fully reported any story regarding this subject. Most of you may excuse yourself from reporting such an atrocity by saying that you need more evidence to protect your media’s reputation. I would like to ask you to read the following material and act upon your conscience in this matter for I cannot see what is more important than stopping the genocide that’s happening right now in China.

Media Reputation and the Burden of Proof

The popular interpretation of "burden of proof" is that whoever proposes any position should present evidence to support his position. If one party accuses another party of something, the accuser should provide evidence to validate his accusation. In modern civilized societies, however, under certain circumstances, the responsibility to present evidence is reversed. If the accuser has circumstantial evidence and traces of evidence, he can propose the indictment, while the accused must provide concrete evidence to prove his innocence. If the accused fails to do so, there is reason to believe that he is guilty.

Reversal of the burden of proof is usually applied when the accused is in possession of, or monopolizes, the evidence. One example is medical accidents: the patient may lack medical knowledge and evidence, but if he was treated and harmed at a hospital, he can press charges against that hospital, while the hospital bears the burden of proof and has to show that it was not responsible for the harm done to the patient. Reversal of the burden of proof does stand in this situation on the basis of justice and moral principles. A civilized society prevents those with power from harming and exploiting less powerful groups.

In the case of the concentration camps and organ harvesting in China, reversal of the burden of proof becomes absolutely necessary in order to uphold justice because the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) is a violent, totalitarian regime that brutalizes its people and blocks information,

If a media which quickly and accurately reported the witnesses' words in its exposure of the organ harvesting in China, and this testimony constitutes powerful circumstantial evidence, the burden of proof no longer lies with the media. If people ask for direct evidence such as pictures or physical evidence, they should direct their requests at the CCP regime, instead of the media. The CCP monopolizes all resources of information and tries its best to cover up the truth and block information channels, and it frequently persecutes people who provide information to overseas media by charging them with "leaking state secrets." Due to the present situation, it is immoral and irrational to demand the media to bear the burden of proof.

The witness who exposed the Sujiatun Concentration Camp mentioned that many people are still facing possible murder. If the media were to wait until it obtains physical evidence to report this news, those people in danger might lose their lives in the meantime. In consideration of this unique circumstance, a responsible media should accurately and quickly report the witnesses' words and request the international community to conduct an immediate investigation.

Someone asked, "What if this news is not completely accurate? Wouldn't it affect the reputation of the media?" I want to ask, "What if it is completely accurate?" If a media misses the time and the opportunity to save lives just to protect its "reputation," isn't it immoral for a media to ignore other people's lives out of fear for its "reputation"? How can a media without morality have a good "reputation"?

At this critical moment of life and death, a responsible media should not wait for irrefutable evidence and miss the time and opportunity to save lives. During World War II, Western media and governments did not report and investigate the atrocities inside Nazi concentration camps, and today's media and governments are turning away from the same crimes.

Lessons from History

On March 27 Rudolph Vrba died in Vancouver, Canada. Vrba and Alfred Wetzler were two of the first Jews who managed to escape from the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. In April 1944, they had presented to the allies the first detailed reports of the extent of the holocaust in Europe, including details of the atrocities committed at the Auschwitz concentration camp. As first-hand witnesses, Vrba and Alfred Wetzler had written a shocking and detailed report about the crimes against humanity and the human slaughter that had been committed at Auschwitz. However, at that time in history, many people did not believe that the report was accurate. As a result, the information in the report was suppressed. Subsequent to the release of this report, during the time between May 15 and July 7, 1944, an additional 437,000 innocent Jews were sent to the Auschwitz death camp.

In mid-1943, when wartime courier Jan Karski emerged from occupied Poland with detailed eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust, he was met with skepticism. At a meeting with three of the Roosevelt administration's most influential Jews, Karski told the story that he had risked his life to tell. No less than Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter told him to his face: "I am unable to believe you."

More than 50 years after Lenin's establishment of the extensive system of Soviet labor camps known as the Gulag, Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote the definitive work on the subject, "The Gulag Archipelago." His opus stemmed from eight years of his own experience, as well as meticulous notes from the experiences of perhaps hundreds of other inmates. Yet, in the West, his book also met with skepticism and sometimes with outright resistance.

In early 1994, Canadian Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire, an officer in charge of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Rwanda, repeatedly warned that an infrastructure for the systematic killings of Tutsis was being put into place. He started his warnings a full four months before at least half a million Tutsis were methodically slaughtered in a concentrated campaign. Speaking of a massacre Dallaire personally witnessed, he told his superiors in a coded cable that he "firmly believe[d] that the perpetrators of these evil deeds were well-organized, well-informed, well-motivated and prepared to conduct premeditated murder," according to a Human Rights Watch report. Despite his being a witness to the atrocities, Dallaire's U.N. superiors repeatedly turned down his calls for reinforcements as well as his recommendations for intervention to stop the killings.

According to the Human Rights Watch report on the Rwandan genocide, entitled "Leave None to Tell the Story," the powers who could have committed themselves to stopping the killing failed to do so because of their self-interest. "The Americans were interested in saving money; the Belgians were interested in saving face; and the French were interested in saving their ally, the genocidal government," said Alison Des Forges, key contributor to the over 900-page report, in a press release. "All of that took priority over saving lives."

Please ACT NOW!

It’s been more than 40 days since the first witness risked his life to expose China’s concentration camps to the world on March 9. Many lives have lost during those days. How many more lives have to lose for us to learn our lessons? Think about the last time you went for shopping. How many products you saw were made in China? How do you know that if the person who helped to make the product had not killed in the concentration camp? Is this just a problem of one nation?

Please do not hesitate to act now and let as many people know as possible. I thank you in advance for all the people who will be saved because you decide to write about this story. I have organized some materials regarding the concentration camps where organ harvesting takes place in China. Please see the following for your reference.

Organ Harvesting in China

China has become the global center for organ transplant.

On March 5, 2006, a major northeastern Chinese newspaper group Changchun Daily published a full page article entitled, "China has Become the Global Center for Organ Transplant." This article quoted a director of a hospital in Beijing, “up to 1,000 Korean patients have had organ transplant operations in China annually.” Organ transplant patients from other countries are said to number over 1,000 per year.

According to a report on June 1, 2001 by Toronto Globe & Mail, a Vancouver businessman Walter Klak said in an interview that he and his Shanghai partner are using China for transplants because "we found that to be the largest supply of organs that are available." The Kidney Group, a Vancouver company, sends Canadians and others to China for transplants. “Company owner Vince Lam said Canadians with the money don't have to wait five to eight years for a kidney transplant. He can arrange one in 15 days.” CBC News reported on March 17, 2003.

When asked about how many Americans go to China for organ transplants each year, Dr. Thomas Diflo, director of renal transplantation, New York University Medical Center, said “I think this is pretty widespread," and "You'll see it anywhere you have an Asian community.” New York Times reported on November 11, 2001.

Why do so many foreigners go to China for organ transplant every year?

Organ supply is ample; waiting time is short.

Various medical reports indicates that it takes years in average to wait for an organ transplant in developed countries such as the United States. While the rest of the world is in short supply of organs, many hospitals in China are advertising that they have sufficient organ donors. Here are some examples.

When introducing their kidney transplant operations, the Urological Department of Changhai Hospital in Shanghai emphasizes on their website:

· “The donor kidneys are high quality, and the kidney functions recover rather quickly after the operation.”

· “Sufficient donor sources, waiting period very short."

Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20050302090111/http://www.chhospital.com.cn/dept/dept4/special/special4.htm

The China International Transplantation Network Assistance Center at the China Medical University in Shenyang City advertised the following on their website:

· "If you send your personal data to this center by e-mail or fax and accept the necessary body examination in Shenyang, China in order to assure a suitable donor, it may take only one month to receive a liver transplantation, the maximum waiting time being two months. As for the kidney transplantation, it may take one week to find a suitable donor, the maximum time being one month. Although the procedure to select a donor is very strict,, the transplant operation will be terminated if the doctor discovers that there is something wrong with the donor's organ . If this happens, the patient will have the option to be offered another organ donor and have the operation again in one week. “

Source: http://en.zoukiishoku.com/list/volunteer.htm

· "There are more than 35,000 kidney transplant operations that have been done in public hospitals in 29 cities, provinces and municipalities in China, and the number of kidney transplant operations is at least 5,000 every year all over the country. So many transplantation operations are owing to the support of the Chinese government. The Supreme Demotic Court, Supreme Demotic Law-officer, Police, Judiciary, Department of Health and Civil Administration have enacted a law together to make sure that organ donations are supported by the government. This is unique in the world."

Source: http://en.zoukiishoku.com/list/facts.htm

· This website also claimed that it does not use organs from those who are brain dead "because the state of the organ may not be good."

Source: http://en.zoukiishoku.com/list/qa7.htm

The Tianjin Oriental Organ Transplantation Center, one of the largest transplantation centers in northern China shows its achievements (please refer to the graph below). It indicates that the number of organ transplantation cases sharply increased in the time period of 2001 to 2004. Medical professionals reason that there must be a large live organ bank in the Shenyang area considering that some organs have only 24 – 48 hours of survival time and that it takes only a short time to find matching organs.

Number of organ transplants in China increased rapidly in recent years.

According to official numbers from China, only 78 liver transplants were performed nationally from 1991 to 1998. However, since 1999 (when the persecution of Falun Gong started), the total number of liver transplants in China almost doubled each year. An article entitled “The History of Organ Transplant in Our Country” published on November 2, 2004 by Health Newspaper, a periodical affiliated with the Ministry of Health, provides the following number:

Year	Number of Liver Transplant Surgeries
1991-1998	78
1999	118
2000	254
2001	486
2002	996

The Chinese Society of Transplantation says about 1,500 liver transplants were carried out in 2003. A report on October 25, 2005 from Deutsche Welle indicates that China had performed about 2,600 liver transplants and 6,000 kidney transplants in 2004, even this is thought to be an underestimate by many medical experts.

The exact number of organ transplants in China is a state secret. However, according to preliminary statistics by the highly authoritative Chinese Journal of Nephrology Dialysis & Transplantation, about 15,000 to 20,000 organ transplants were done in China every year, only second to the number done in the United States.

Who are the “donors” in China?

"People don't realize that only 1 per cent of all deaths meet the criteria for organ donation." "They have to meet brain-death criteria, which means they have to die in a hospital and on a ventilator," said Bill Barrable, chief executive officer of the British Columbia Transplant Society.

-- June 1, 2001 by Toronto Globe & Mail

While it takes years to wait for a suitable organ donor in the United States, how does China achieve such a short waiting time for organ transplants?

In traditional Chinese culture, a corpse needs to be kept whole. Thus, voluntary organ donors are very scarce in China. According to various evidence and reports, there are two major sources for China’s organ supply: executed prisoners and persecuted Falun Gong practitioners.

Organ Harvested from Executed Prisoners

The illegal removal of the organs from executed prisoners in China has been widely reported by international media and human rights organizations. The U.S. Congress held hearings on this subject in 1994, 1998, and 2001. In June 2001, Wang Guoqi, a Chinese former military physician, offered evidence to the US Congress of how he had to harvest organs of more than 100 executed prisoners.

The number of executions in China is considered a state secret. Amnesty International documented at least 3,400 executions in 2004 - 90% of the total of capital punishments recorded around the world. Liu Renwen, a scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, recently stated that he believed the number of executions each year to be around 8,000.

Source: http://www.laogai.org

Organ Harvested from Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners

Laogai Foundation issued several reports indicating that labor camps in China have been harvesting human organs for over twenty years. Since the CCP started its persecution on Falun Gong in July, 1999, thousands of Falun Gong practitioners were detained in jails and labor camps. According to the Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group, there are many cases of Falun Gong practitioners being killed and their organs taken away.

One of several confirmed cases is a Falun Gong practitioner in Daqing City in northeast China. He was a software engineer in the Petroleum Discovery and Development Research Institute in Daqing city. On September 24, 2000, he was beaten to death by Feng Xi and other policemen in the Daqing Labor Camp. His organs were removed, including the heart and the brain.

During the apparent peak of the organ harvesting between 2001 and 2003, the major camps that detained Falun Gong practitioners became overcrowded, with the number of detainees maintained at a level of 5,000-20,000 in each. Many Falun Gong practitioners were transferred to other facilities including mental institutions and hospitals. It is estimated that 100,000 Falun Gong practitioners have disappeared or are under arrest without notifying their family members.

It is said that the official policy of China's regime toward Falun Gong is to "destroy their reputation, suffocate them financially, and exterminate them physically." This policy, combined with the secret arrests of Falun Gong practitioners who have disappeared on a large scale, has provided the necessary conditions for illegal organ traders.

Source: http://www.faluninfo.net

http://www.falunhr.org

Concentration Camps in China Exposed

Word of concentration camps for Falun Gong practitioners has circulated for several years. A report on October 1, 2000 by Agence France Presse told of two concentration camps having been recently built, both specifically for Falun Gong adherents. The camps were said to have been built in north-west and north-east China, and were capable of each holding up to 50,000 persons.

A 6 October 2000 report on Minghui.net stated that a concentration camp expressly for the Falun Gong had been built in the remote north-western province of Xinjiang. Chinese sources report seeing Falun Gong adherents shipped off on trains to the Xinjiang camp. Little to no information on the secretive camp has emerged. No one to date is known to have come back from the camp.

This past January Chinese officials similarly announced a “new campaign” that would supposedly “sabotage activities of cult organizations” as part of a “complex struggle against enemies,” according to a Reuters report. Past campaigns to “strike hard” have resulted in upwards of 10,000-plus executions in a single year, say human rights groups.

Last June CCP authorities reportedly held a “crisis meeting” in which China’s deputy minister of Public Security, Liu Jing, was assigned the job of “stamping out” Falun Gong “before the Olympic Games in 2008”, according to the Paris-based Intelligence Online. Several reports have stated that authorities wish to use the Olympics as a pretext to deepen their assault on the Falun Gong.

Witnesses

On March 8, 2006, a Chinese journalist on the run from the Chinese communist regime disclosed the existence of a death camp in the Sujiatun District of Shenyang City in Liaoning Province, China, expressly for Falun Gong practitioners. The camp is said to once hold over 6,000 Falun Gong adherents and “nobody has yet to come out” from it alive. According to the source, it contains a crematorium and an unusually large number of doctors work there. He said, “Falun Gong practitioners are killed for their organs, which are then sent to medical facilities. Currently, the organ business is a very profitable one in China.”

On March 17, a new witness reported that the Sujiatun death camp was part of the Liaoning Thrombus Treatment Center of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, where she and her family used to work. It is said that “the hospital has a huge system of secret underground chambers” to carry out operation of the death camp. The source also said that at least two thirds of the detainees had been killed for their organs since she left the hospital. Three days later, the witness revealed that her ex-husband was once a surgeon operating coronal removal at the Sujiatun camp from 2001 to 2003.

On March 18, 2006, a reader from Mainland China called the Epoch Times and exposed that a celebrity in China had a liver transplant. The liver transplanted belonged to a Falun Gong practitioner. This reader also revealed that the General Hospital of the Army and Police Force in Beijing still stores organs of Falun Gong practitioners for high-ranking officials and celebrities.

On March 30, a third witness identifies himself as a veteran medical doctor who has served in the Shenyang military zone. The source said,” The so-called underground Sujiatun Concentration Camp does exist. Organ harvesting is routine there. It is also a common practice to cremate dead or even living Falun Gong practitioners.” However,”many detainees have been transferred to other concentration camps.” He also revealed that a total of some 36 similar camps exist throughout China. It is said the three largest camps are in the northern China provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning. The fifth-largest camp, located in the Jiutai district of Jilin, holds as many as 14,000-plus Falun Gong practitioners at a time. The largest camp, codenamed “672-S,” is said to hold over 120,000 people, among who are Falun Gong adherents and other prisoners of conscience.

During a court session in April, 2006 in the lawsuit against Luo Gan (detailed information available under Background) in Argentina, persecution survivor Yuzhi Wang gave testimony relating to the organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners. She said after she was tortured nearly to death at Wanjia Labor Camp in Harbin, Heilongjiang Provice, she was taken by the local "610 Office" (detailed information available under Background) to four very famous hospitals in Harbin for physical exams, including blood tests and checkups on the condition of her internal organs.After all the four hospitals unanimously concluded that all her organs were "useless", the "610 Office" suddenly lost interest in her and even stopped monitoring her.

Source: http://www.theepochtimes.com/211,111,,1.html

Investigations by Civil Groups

1. World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong

On March 14, the Organization published an “Investigation Report on the Live Harvesting of Human Organs from Abducted Falun Gong Practitioners at the Sujiatun Concentration Camp (Phase 1).” The report confirms the first witness’ account on the existence of Sujiatun Concentration Camp.

“The operation at Sujiatun Concentration Camp started in 2001, and reached its peak in 2002. The Concentration Camp was located near a particular hospital in Sujiatun. The whole facility was underground, and was modified from what was originally a "civil air defense" (underground air defense fortification facility) and other ancillary underground facilities. At least one entrance was located at the rear entrance of said hospital. There was nothing appeared out of ordinary above ground. This establishment was a high security area that is totally closed off. It has its own supply system, including underground shops.”

On March 30, WOIPFG published second report confirming the second witness’ accounts that the Sujiatun Concentration Camp is part of a hospital, namely the Liaoning Province Thrombosis Treatment Center of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine. The report says, “The hopstial had set up an unlawful crematorium to burn the bodies and destroy evidence. The existence of a huge live human organ bank in the Shenyang City area has been verified. The live harvesting of organs for transplants from unlawfully detained Falun Gong practitioners was found in not only at the Sujiatun area but also at many other places throughout Mainland China.”

The report also says that its investigators had spoken with medical staff in eight of China’s provinces, each of whom disclosed that organs being used in transplant surgeries had indeed come from imprisoned Falun Gong adherents.

On April 4, an informant wrote a letter to the Organization, revealing that “the First Center Hospital of Tianjin suddenly received a large group of foreigners that had come to Tianjin for liver or kidney transplants.” The informant also provided the hotel names where the foreign patients stayed and waited for organs.

Source: http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/en

2. The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China

On April 6, the Coalition issued an urgent announcement, stating that “Witnesses of underground concentration camps, including Sujiatun camp, have been secretly relocated and are subject to slaughtering anytime. Meanwhile some hospitals in China have suddenly increased the number of transplant operations.” Hospital staff told an undercover investigator that patients needed to hurry up if they wanted a transplant. Staff said that as little as one or two days would be enough time to find a matching organ. They also said it would be difficult to obtain an organ after this batch of body parts is used up. The Coalition speculates that the CCP has intentionally set the effective date of the newly issued transplant regulation on July 1, 2006 so it has time to put the cover-up in place by destroying the evidence.

On April 11, the Coalition published a list of labor camps, hospitals and prisons for evidence collection. On April 17, five members of the Coalition went to the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. to apply for visas to investigate the situation.

Source: http://clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2006/4/19/72166.html

3. Other Investigations

Early April reporters from Sound of Hope Radio made phone calls to major hospitals in China with a human organ transplant department. Most of the medical doctors that answered the phone gave the same guarantee—there will be an unusually large number of organ donors before May 1. After that date, the chance for a donor will become much smaller.

According to doctors interviewed, all of the donors are in their 20's and 30's. They are very healthy. The doctors guaranteed that livers and kidneys are from living human beings. One of them even admitted that some organs are from living Falun Gong practitioners. They can even provide a whole liver. For some blood type, they can find matching donors right away.

The number of patients at the organ transplant centers in China suddenly surged. Major hospitals in China are now working overtime for organ transplant operations.

"April. We should have a lot of organs before the end of April. We are getting a larger and larger supply of organs, but you have to grasp the opportunity. Do you know what I mean? After this period of time, the supply will become very slim. After the end of April, there will be a period we will have nothing. We just won't have any supply of organs. If you don't have an organ transplant now while there is a supply, you are leading yourself to a dead end when the supply disappears," said a doctor at Shanghai Changzheng Hospital.

Source: http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-4-14/40373.html

Responses from the Chinese Communist Party

Official State Response

1. On March 27, China’s Ministry of Health issued temporary regulations to forbid the trade in human organs and to require that donors give written permission for their organs to be transplanted. The regulations are to be in effect from July 1, 2006. (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-03/27/content_4352460.htm)

Consider this:

· Why did the CCP issue this regulation at such a sensitive time; i.e. right after the news about Sujiatun death camp came out?

· Why after all this years of denial did the CCP start to recognize the problem of organ harvesting?

· Why is the effective date of the regulation set three months later?

2. According to reports from Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, the spokesperson of China’s Foreign Ministry, Qin Gang, denied at a press briefing on March 28 the organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners at Sujiatun and organ harvesting from executed prisoners in China. He also invited reporters to visit Sujiatun. (http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/6/4/6/n1279107.htm)

Consider this:

· Why did CCP wait for more than 20 days to respond to such a serious allegation, not to mentioning Qin Gang only spoke of this allegation because he was asked at a press briefing?

· Why are there no records of Qin Gang’s statements of denial under the Foreign Ministry’s website? (http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xwfw/s2510/t243018.htm)

· Why did Qin Gang deny organ harvesting of executed prisoners in China which is a well-know fact among international communities? The Deputy Minister of Health, Huang Jiefu acknowledged this issue in August of last year at an international WHO meeting. How can we trust Qin Gang’s statement of denial on Sujiatun incident when his other statement was clearly a lie?

· According to a Radio Free Asia April 8 report about Sun Xiaodi, a person who has been appealing regarding a nuclear reactor leakage in China for several years, being arrested in the Sujiatun area. The local police told Sun that the Sujiatun area was considered a "highly sensitive area." The authorities were alarmed when this dissident appeared in Sujiatun and arrested him again. It is reported that the Sujiatun area is on an internal "security surveillance" status. Any strangers who visit the area for more than 3 days will be followed and may be arrested.

3. On April 12, the State Council Information Office in Beijing arranged a press conference where officials of the Liaoning Thrombosis Treatment Centre of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine denied the existence of a death camp located in their hospital. The hospital’s deputy director, Zhang Yuqin stated that he would consider suing the Epoch Times. (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/home/2006-04/13/content_566554.htm)

Consider this:

The Epoch Times held a press conference next day to respond Beijing’s denial on Sujiatun incident. The newspaper stated, “We hope that the Chinese regime will allow an impartial court to conduct a full investigation of the issue, including independent investigation on labor camps in China. The Chinese government doesn't like The Epoch Times . As of today, there are at least 5 Epoch Times reporters and many Epoch Times columnists in jail in China.”

Websites Taken Down Following the News of Sujiatun Concentration Camp

Shortly after the news of Sujiatun concentration camp came out on March 8, a number of China’s official websites or articles suspected of containing important evidence concerning the camp were taken down from the internet. Here are two examples:

The China International Transplantation Network Assistance Center at the China Medical University in Shenyang, Liaoning Province took down the Chinese version from its website www.zoukiishoku.com of 5 (now 4) languages. Archived file can be found here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20050213101222/www.zoukiishoku.com/cn/CHINA/index.htm

The Urological Department of Changhai Hospital (an affiliation of the Second Military Medical University) in Shanghai removed its webpage which promotes its achievements in organ transplant surgeries. Archived file can be found here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20050302090111/www.chhospital.com.cn/dept/dept4/special/special4.htm