While a majority of developed nations have wait periods that can reach up to several years before a matching organ is found, China manages to on average procure a match in less than two weeks.
When responding to a growing number of well-documented allegations regarding its unscrupulous organ harvest methods, the Chinese government's math simply does not add up, according to a recently released study.
Although the communist superpower claims organs used in transplants throughout hospitals in China come largely from executed death row inmates, investigative research paints a much bleaker picture that illustrates how official numbers don't reconcile with reality.
A report released this summer by Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas, former Canadian secretary of state David Kilgour, as well as investigative journalist Ethan Gutmann, revealed that Falun Gong prisoners of conscience are being killed to supply China's billion-dollar organ trade, said a press release.
To raise awareness about this human rights violation, several car tours of Canadian Falun Gong practitioners have been travelling across various provinces, making stops along the way to meet with officials and politicians at all levels of government.
On Monday, Sept. 26, one group stopped by the Town of Sundre office to share information regarding the Chinese government's practice, which is said to have resulted in the deaths of more than one million Falun Gong followers since a crackdown began against the group about 15 years ago.
Far from being some kind of violent, insurrectionist, anti-government movement hell-bent on securing power, followers of Falun Gong — also known as Falun Dafa — practise meditation and exercises with philosophies as well as lessons based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance, said the press release.
“In July 1999, fearing that the movement's widespread popularity was overshadowing his own legacy, the Chinese Communist leader Jiang Zemin ordered the eradication of the traditional Chinese practice. The arbitrary arrest, torture, killing, incarceration, brainwashing, organ harvesting and demonization of Falun Gong continue to this day.”
Although volunteer organizer Jenny Yang knows Canadian politicians are in no position to directly change Chinese domestic policy, she nevertheless wants to raise awareness about the issue to increase the international community's ability to apply pressure.
“Canada plays a significant role on the international stage,” she told the Round Up.
The Canadian Falun Gong followers want Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — as well as all other possible levels of the government — to directly address the issue with Chinese officials and to apply pressure on the communist regime to cease and desist its deplorable practice, she said.
“They have to stop this genocide immediately. These are tens of thousands of innocent prisoners of conscience — Falun Gong practitioners — being killed for their beliefs. We're always so proud of Canada's history and its important role on human rights. We should be strong on this issue.”
Open public discourse is the best way to bring about change in China. That's what the communist party is most afraid of — is that more people will get to know the issue and begin to talk about it publicly, she said.
“They don't care about private dialogue.”
The only way is to let more media know, to let more people know, and in turn to increase the amount of pressure applied by the international community, she said.
“Little by little, we can definitely help to stop this crime.”
Even before the report was released this summer, allegations about China's organ trade had been surfacing in recent years. Shortly before the report went public, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed House Resolution 343 to express “concern regarding persistent and credible reports of systematic state-sanctioned organ harvesting from non-consenting prisoners of conscience in the People's Republic of China, including from large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners and members of other religious and ethnic minority groups.”
Visit www.faluninfo.net and www.dafoh.org for more information.
