Image: AK
By Anne Kader
On 29th October, The Herald Sun – a Melbourne-based newspaper, reported on rampant organ harvesting in China. It is an underground industry worth USD 1 billion. A healthy liver fetches around USD 160,000 on the black market, the report says. The question remains, how do these transplant hospitals obtain these healthy organs.
For decades there have been concerns about the increasing number of organ transplants in China. The country boasts about fast delivery of organs and pre-booked transplant operations. China has become a predominant hub for international transplant tourism. The organ harvesting industry in China targets prisoners of conscience that are particularly vulnerable, as are Uyghurs in Chinese detention.
There have been significant discrepancies in the number of “voluntary organ donors” and the actual number of transplants. Researchers David Matas, David Kilgour, and Ethan Gutmann have for years studied the Chinese transplant statistics. They found that the Chinese regime performs 60,000 to 100,000 transplants per year, not 10,000 like China officially claims.
In June 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) voiced its grave concern for organ harvesting targeting vulnerable minorities in China. The best thing the nations can do to combat the atrocity of live organ harvesting of Uyghurs and others is to prohibit transplant tourism to China, as a few countries have already done.
The scenes of Squid Game, a popular South Korean survival drama on Netflix, uncannily resemble the atrocities committed in China. One of its episodes details organ harvesting. Beijing has been quick to censor the series. In the lives of Uyghurs, organ harvesting is a grim result of not bending under the oppression of the CCP.
Seemingly the persecuted Uyghurs are not targeted for mere political brainwashing. China goes after their bodies and souls alike. Even their harvested organs have to benefit the evil regime.