World Trade and Black-Market Body Parts in China

0 Comments | Insight on the News, July 30, 2001 | by John Elvin

With China poised to enter the World Trade Organization, and many U.S. political leaders arguing that sanctions are ineffective as a foreign-policy tool, some people wonder whether the issue of black-market body parts simply will be swept under the international rug.

It's a grim situation. In some cases, Chinese doctors remove organs from executed prisoners before the "donor's" heart has stopped beating, according to congressional testimony by a Chinese physician who now lives in the United States. Dr. Wang Guoqi, formerly a burn specialist at the Paramilitary Hospital in Tianjin, told the House International Relations subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights that the organs are harvested to profit from demand for the part by foreign organ-transplant patients.

Wang said he personally had removed skin and corneas from the corpses of more than 100 executed inmates, according to news reports on the heating. In some cases the executions purposely were "botched," Wang said, to preserve desired body parts. Normal procedure is a shot to the head, but when the cornea is sought, the condemned is shot in the heart. The executions and organ sales are said to be directed by the Chinese military.

Wang said he was determined to leave China after following orders to remove skin from a prisoner who still was alive. It's estimated that China conducts around 3,000 executions per year, so you're talking a multimillion-dollar business when you consider a selling price of as much as $30,000 for a heart or kidney.

A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, Zhang Qiyue, vehemently denied Wang's charges, terming them "vicious slander" and "sensational lies." Zhang said China strictly forbids the sale of human organs. "Some people will chum out sensational lies denigrating China to achieve their personal goals," she said.

Death sentences in China can be the result of political activities or crimes such as tax evasion or drug dealing. In a speech protesting proposed trade agreements with China not long ago, Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., suggested that in some cases the list may include "people of religious faith, environmental activists, human-rights activists, opponents of coercive abortion, student demonstrators and anyone who appears to be questioning or challenging the government of China."

The official U.S. position as expressed by the State Department has been to "express concern" to China over the reports. Those reports, by the way, are not what you'd term minors or whispers. There have been a number of credible news articles and TV stories, with considerable documentation.

One tried-and-true "sanction" that does work is to lock up anyone caught breaking U.S. laws. Federal authorities have had some success on that front, although the effort shows that the situation is dire. A Chinese doctor caught in a sting conducted by the FBI is on tape making a sales pitch to an undercover agent. "China is not lacking in corpses," the doctor said. "China has lots of people, lots of death-row prisoners."