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.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS