Falun Gong members in Taiwan yesterday accused China of running a Nazi concentration camp-style facility to harvest organs from Falun Gong members and sell the organs to patients who need transplants.
The sect, citing information from a Chinese doctor now living in the US, claimed that a hospital in Shengyang, China, has been carrying on the illegal organ trade and the persecution of Chinese Falun Gong members since 2001.
"Since 2001, some 6,000 Falun Gong members have been sent to the Shenyang Thrombosis Hospital and only 2,000 of them are alive," Chang Ching-hsi (
"The other Falun Gong members died after their kidneys, livers, corneas or skin were removed," Chang said.
He said the doctor quit his job and emigrated to the US because he had nightmares after removing organs from Falun Gong members who were still alive.
The doctor said the harvesting of organs was carried out in the hospital's air-raid shelters and its adjacent compound nicknamed "the backyard." The bodies are then cremated in a furnace, he said.
There is no official confirmation of the human-organ trade allegations, but the doctor -- saying he judged by the sudden increase in the hospital's purchase of medical supplies -- estimated that 6,000 Falun Gong members had entered the hospital since 2001.
The Taiwanese Falun Gong group issued an open letter to US President George W Bush, asking him to raise the issue of China's harvesting organs from Falun Gong members when Chinese President Hu Jintao (
China banned the Falun Gong in 2001, but the meditation sect has spread all over the world and has millions of followers.
Several Chinese hospitals are known to use organs harvested from executed prisoners to transplant into foreign and overseas Chinese patients. They advertise transplant services on the Internet.
According to local press reports, hundreds of Taiwanese fly to China each year for liver or kidney transplants.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)