This is The People’s Tribunal.
These are the plaintiffs.
David Kilgour, a Canadian lawyer and politician.
And Ethan Gutmann, an investigative journalist
who’s been researching China for two decades.
They accuse the Chinese Communist Party
of orchestrating a massive underground
organ transplant network
using the bodies of innocent people.
And these are the defendants.
Ahem.
These are the defendants.
Um...are they not gonna show?
Welcome back to China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
According to Chinese state-run media,
the World Health Organization is asking China
to advise health authorities worldwide
on best practices in organ transplants.
That’s great news.
Because China has so much experience!
They carry out more organ transplants
than any other country, after the US.
At least, according their official numbers.
Which are pretty amazing for a country
that didn’t even have an organ donation system
until a few years ago.
I guess that’s why “The National Health Commission
said [China’s] practices and experiences
are now recognized by the world’s
mainstream medical community.”
But weirdly, there seem to be mixed messages
from the world community.
Because on one hand,
Chinese doctors are working with the WHO
to advise the global medical community.
But on the other hand,
China is also allegedly leading the world
in forced organ harvesting.
By allegedly carrying out over
60,000 illegal organ transplants every year.
That’s more than triple the official transplant numbers.
And they allegedly take those extra organs
from Chinese prisoners of conscience.
These are not people who are on death row
for committing actual crimes.
These are innocent people who happen to belong to
groups that the Chinese Communist Party persecutes.
Groups like Falun Gong,
Uighurs, Tibetans, and Christians.
Of course, the Chinese Communist Party
denies it completely.
According to the Chinese embassy,
“The so-called organ harvesting...
is totally a lie fabricated by Falun Gong.”
You know how those persecuted spiritual groups can get!
So the Chinese Communist Party
sends them to labor camps
and tortures them a little,
and maybe a few..hundred thousand...die.
Accidentally, of course.
And suddenly people are accusing
the Party of taking their organs.
I mean, who would believe them?
Other than independent researchers
and medical experts from around the world.
So how we determine who’s telling the truth?
What are people going to do,
look at the actual evidence and prove it in court?
Yes, yes, that’s exactly what people are doing.
This is the “Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting
from Prisoners of Conscience in China.”
It’s an “An independent people’s tribunal...
established to inquire into forced organ harvesting from,
amongst others,
prisoners of conscience in China.”
That sounds pretty serious.
Now, the tribunal didn’t get a lot of attention
from the mainstream media,
but in this era of infotainment news,
I think it’s just a branding issue.
I would have called it
the “Independent Tribunal into One Weird Trick
Chinese Hospitals Use to Make Money
and Help You Lose Weight.
The Results Will Shock You.”
But that’s just me.
Anyway, this tribunal means business.
Leading the Tribunal is Sir Geoffrey Nice.
He led the prosecution of Serbian dictator Slobodan Milošević
for war crimes at the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal
for the Former Yugoslavia.
And now, Sir Nice is looking into allegations
of state-sponsored slaughter in China.
“This tribunal, it will be recalled,
is investigating if criminal offenses
have been committed by state or state approved bodies
or organizations or individuals in China,
that or who may have
engaged in forced organ harvesting.”
That’s from the first part of the Tribunal last December.
And this past April 6 and 7,
he held part 2.
I would have called it
“Independent Tribunal Part 2: Electric Boogaloo.”
I don’t know why they don’t consult with me on branding.
Anyway, the thing lasted two entire days,
so I’ll just give you the highlights in 5 minutes.
Organ transplant researcher Ethan Gutmann
is the author of “The Slaughter:
Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting,
and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem”.
He concluded that the Chinese regime
is murdering dissidents on a massive scale,
and forcibly extracting their organs for profit.
Spoiler alert.
That’s the secret solution to China’s dissident problem.
For about 20 years,
the main source of these organs
have been people who practice Falun Gong.
You see, Chinese authorities claimed
doing these kinds of exercises is dangerous and illegal,
so people who do them need to be “re-educated”.
In labor camps.
Without trial.
Then rich people who want new organs
can visit state-run Chinese hospitals
and schedule an organ transplant,
and these Falun Gong practitioners would be...
what’s a nice euphemism?...
required to donate their organs right away.
And now that the Chinese regime
has launched a new wave of persecution
against the Uighur people who live in Xinjiang,
Gutmann says they’re also being
targeted for “organ donation.”
“Because of the Uighur situation—
it is as if we’re seeing a speeded up version
of the Falun Gong persecution.
It’s just sort of happening at five times the speed.”
Which is to say,
experience really is the best teacher.
You start with small scale human experiments
on a group no one really cares about,
and then when you see results,
you ramp it up on another group
no one really cares about.
You already built the system,
so now it’s faster and more efficient.
And joining the Tribunal by phone
was former Canadian MP David Kilgour.
He co-authored a book called Bloody Harvest.
And, look,
I know you’re not going to read the book.
So I’ll just tell you,
it lays out like 30 points of evidence
that Chinese authorities are killing people for their organs.
It’s pretty solid.
Kilgour joined last weekend’s Tribunal by phone
to give his testimony.
And he was asked why—
if it’s all true—
is there so little action
by other governments around the world?
“It’s a sad thing to say
but I’m absolutely convinced it’s wilful ignorance.
It’s choosing not to say anything.”
Witnesses at the tribunal, though,
said a lot about the atrocities they experienced.
Like this woman who was persecuted in China
because she practices Falun Gong.
She said after she was arrested,
doctors collected samples of her blood.
“I looked and saw how much blood was extracted.
And it was the first time
that I had seen this [so much blood].
It was very distressing.”
Experts on forced organ harvesting say
taking blood from political prisoners is common,
and a great way to screen potential donors.
She was probably lucky to escape.
And then there’s this woman on the screen,
Mihrigul Tursun.
She was imprisoned in China for being a Uighur.
She joined by video,
through a translator.
“They separated me from my babies,
and after three hours interrogation
they sealed my mouth
and put a black hood over my head,
handcuffed me and took me to a detention center.”
She said her three children
were also taken into custody.
One of them died,
and the other two came back
with scars from being operated on.
Now these are pretty serious allegations.
So you’d think it’s only fair that the tribunal
would give Chinese officials
the chance to present their case.
Well, they did.
Representatives of the Chinese Embassy
were invited to counter the allegations.
“Good morning everyone,
is anybody representing the People’s Republic of China
present in this room?”
“No Sir.”
Huh.
I wonder why the Chinese officials didn’t show.
Maybe they were just too busy
advising the World Health Organization.
But in the interest of being impartial and objective,
the tribunal invited anyone to provide evidence
that disproves the allegation that the Chinese regime
is slaughtering innocent people for their organs.
“Our determination as a tribunal is to remain
completely open to evidence of whatever inclination,
persuasion, whatever you like,
right until the last moment.
And we hope that anyone who has
or can point to evidence that will help the tribunal
will come forth and make that evidence available.”
But so far, the evidence has been overwhelmingly
the kind that Chinese officials fear.
So much so that although the Tribunal
won’t end until June,
they issued a rare interim judgement back in December.
“We the tribunal members are all certain,
unanimously and sure beyond reasonable doubt—
that in China forced organ harvesting
from prisoners of conscience
has been practiced for a substantial period of time
involving a very substantial number of victims.”
So the interim judgement is that organ harvesting
is definitely happening.
The tribunal will eventually issue a final judgement
that includes whether Chinese authorities
have broken international law.
But it’s still unclear
whether governments around the world
will listen to what the tribunal has to say.
So what do you think of the “Independent Tribunal
into Forced Organ Harvesting
from Prisoners of Conscience in China?
Did the results shock you?
Leave your comments below.
And now it’s time for me to answer
a question from one of you—
a fan who supports China Uncensored
with a dollar or more per episode,
by contributing through our Patreon website.
Daniel Ortman asks:
“I'm curious about the PRC's relationship
with its former USSR neighbors.
Kazakhstan I know has ethnic
and cultural ties to the Uyghurs,
so I would imagine that they have
had arguments over the issue.
Or does China just push them around?”
Good question, Daniel.
So as you know,
Kazakhstan is a country that borders
both China and Russia.
“This is my country of Kazakhstan.”
Unfortunately,
Kazakhstan will ALWAYS be known for Borat—
a caricature played by a comedian from London.
What was your question?
Oh right.
Kazakhstan and the Uighurs.
Yeah, so Kazakhstan does have
a cultural connection to the Uighurs
who live in Western China.
But more importantly,
Kazakhstan is a big part of China’s
Belt and Road Initiative.
Kazakhstan has become the main hub
between China and Europe for all the goods
that are transported by train.
And Kazakhstan is not exactly a rich country.
So it’s understandable that Kazak leaders
want Chinese investment—
because the alternative is no investment.
But the catch is,
they have to keep their mouths shut
about the Uighurs being tortured
or even killed for their organs in China.
And there’s now growing evidence
that ethnic Kazakhs are also being arrested in China.
On the plus side,
for the Chinese regime,
this relationship is a win-win.
Like when Kazakhstan authorities arrested
a human rights activist who helped expose
the reeducation camps in Xinjiang.
Uh, totally not because the Chinese Communist Party
asked them to.
Thanks for your question, Daniel.
And thanks to all my 50-Cent Army soldiers
who support China Uncensored.
It’s only because of your support
that we’ve been able to cover topics like this,
that most other media don’t want to.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
See you next time.