Chinese Officer: Jiang Zemin Ordered Organ Harvesting
By Matthew Robertson, Epoch Times | January 7, 2015
A secretly recorded phone call by a group that investigates human
rights abuses in China may shed light on a crucial question: did a
former leader of the Chinese Communist Party directly order the
genocide, by cruel and unusual means, of a religious group?
In the year 2000, a remarkable thing began happening in the Chinese
organ transplantation industry: organ transplant rates shot up, new
transplant centers were opened, and a flush of websites offered
turnaround times of as little as one week for the transplant of a vital
organ, something unheard of in developed countries, where waiting times
for livers and hearts are often measured in years.
Organ Puzzle
For a time, this was puzzling. China had no voluntary donation
transplantation system (as in developed countries) and it was generally
understood that all transplant organs came from executed prisoners—that
is, people convicted of crimes and sentenced to death. In China, their
organs were simply scooped out and sold.
But unlike the transplant rate, the execution rate did not suddenly
rise in the year 2000. In fact, data from Duihua, a China-focused human
rights group, shows a general decline in executions over the years.
Years later, starting in 2006 and 2007, researchers figured out what
accounted for the sudden boost in transplants: a new, different source
of organs had come online in 2000—those harvested from practitioners of
Falun Gong, a spiritual practice.
Falun Gong, a traditional system of meditative exercises and moral
teachings, had achieved enormous popularity in China through the 1990s.
In July of 1999, however, the Chinese Communist Party leader at the
time, Jiang Zemin, initiated a campaign to violently eradicate the
practice. It had become so popular so fast that Jiang saw the group as a
threat. He saw the persecution of it as an opportunity to boost his
power in the Party.
Based on hospital data, witness statements, secretly recorded
telephone calls, blood tests, and a battery of other evidence,
researchers saw that beginning in 2000, Falun Gong was becoming a useful
and major source of organs for China’s transplant industry. Falun Gong
organs fueled the massive growth of hospitals and dedicated transplant
centers that did a booming trade in human organs, some of which were
sold to foreigners for upward of $100,000.
Alongside the evidence, a nagging question all along has been whether
this practice spread so quickly across China because of local-level
“entrepreneurship,” or because there was an order from the top.
Ordered Versus ‘Organic’ Killing
In the absence of any documentary proof, the default thesis has been
that the process was “organic,” in the mordant phrase adopted by Ethan
Gutmann, whose book, “The Slaughter,” is devoted to a close examination
of the question of harvesting from Falun Gong.
But there is now a telephone call—secretly recorded—which appears to
show a high-ranking Chinese military official providing a frank
acknowledgement that rather than being a bottom-up instance of
malfeasance and profit-seeking that spread quickly, the killing of tens
of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners for their organs was in fact an
instruction from the top. From Jiang Zemin himself.
At the time, it was Chairman Jiang. There was an instruction to start this thing, organ transplantation.
“At the time, it was Chairman Jiang. There was an instruction to start
this thing, organ transplantation,” said the official. He repeated that
Jiang (who was at the time chair of the Central Military Commission, the
Party body which directs the military) had “I heard gave an instruction
… to sell kidneys, do operations …”
Bai is advised that his investigator heard that “the Joint Logistics
Departments had detained a number of Falun Gong people as live donors,
is that true?” Bai says: “This, this is back then, ah, I think, at least
this is how I remembered, because back then after Chairman Jiang issued
the order, we all did a lot of anti-Falun Gong work.”
He added: “We directly control the military medical universities,
they are directly affiliated with the PLA General Logistics Department,
and they received repeated orders, because Jiang paid a lot attention to
this matter back then, put a lot of emphasis on this matter.” The
caller asks, “Who put a lot of emphasis on this matter?” Bai says:
“Jiang, it was when Jiang was in power.”
The call goes for several minutes. The voice is unmistakably that of
Bai Shuzhong, former minister of health of the People’s Liberation Army
General Logistics Department. As a well-known military official, videos
of his speeches are widely
Guerilla Calls
How a guerilla investigative team managed to get him on the phone,
and even quickly begin discussing such sensitive political information,
is another matter.
Wang Zhiyuan, the New York-based spokesperson for the World
Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, a research
outfit that digs up and compiles evidence of abuses against the
spiritual practice, and the group that made the call, would not allow a
reporter to speak with the individual who made the call. This was
because, he said, it would compromise the caller’s identity.
Wang would not say whether or not the individual was inside or
outside China. But he said that the method they used had been honed over
many years, and was pulled off with the assistance of sympathetic
insiders who leak information to their group.
Specifically in this case, the caller pretended to be a high-level
Chinese official who was investigating the matter. “It was the identity
of a superior official—someone that Bai Shuzhong had to answer to, and
someone who he was afraid of.” Why didn’t he know their voice? “There
are many high-level officials in China. They had not met.” Wang said
that they carefully research information about targets and those they
impersonate—sometimes the efforts fail and the officials become
suspicious and hang up the telephone. Other times they speak, seemingly
freely.
If Wang were challenged on the authenticity of the call, he said that
his organization could provide to an international court or other
authority detailed telephone logs showing that the call was actually
made, as well as the number called from and to. Other calls they make go
through official switchboards in China, featuring interactions with
switchboard operators and the like, none of which, Wang said, could be
faked. He said that WOIPFG could not release that information now
because it would compromise their ability to use such techniques again.
Besides, he remarked, “If we faked this, wouldn’t Bai Shuzhong come
out and prove us wrong? That would be easy, wouldn’t it? Why haven’t
they said anything?”
‘A Great Murderer’
Xi Jinping, the Communist Party leader, is currently conducting a
sweeping purge of the Party apparatus and the military, and it is clear
to observers that many of his targets are officials associated with
Jiang Zemin, the former leader. In this context, it seems understandable
that an official who sincerely believed he was being questioned by a
military investigator, or similar, would rat on Jiang.
This style of leading questioning, however—where possible answers are
contained in the question—did not sit well with David Matas, a Canadian
rights lawyer who co-authored a notable report and book on the Party’s
harvesting of organs from Falun Gong.
“It’s plausible information, but not verifiable information. It’s the
kind of thing that is of interest,” he said in a telephone interview.
I wouldn’t put it past Jiang Zemin to make the order, as part of his character … he was a great murderer.
Matas added: “As far as I’m concerned, evidence of killing Falun Gong
for organs is pretty convincing, and we know that it’s public record
that Jiang initiated the persecution against Falun Gong.” The call by
itself doesn’t establish whether those crimes took place—that’s already
been shown, Matas said—but “tells us maybe some of the mechanics of how
it happened, what drove the practice.”
Matas regarded the telephone call as suggestive and potentially
“damning,” though not by itself “iron clad.” He added: “I wouldn’t put
it past Jiang Zemin to make the order, as part of his character … he was
a great murderer.”
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