Recently, the Swedish newspaper, Dagens Samhälle, published an article, "Oetisk organhandel kräver en svensk lagstiftning", which unfoundedly accused the Chinese Government of having "long allowed organs to be harvested from executed prisoners and organ trafficking", and even falsely claimed "organs are taken from living prisoners of conscience in China". The content of the article is full of lies and bias against China and constitutes an attempt to maliciously smear China, which is totally unacceptable. The Embassy has sent a letter to Dagens Samhälle to express firm opposition, and present China's position as follows:
China has adopted and implemented the Regulations on Human Organ Transplantation as early as 2007. China's health authorities have also made clear provisions on issues related to human organ transplantation for foreign applicants. Chinese law prohibits trade in human organs and forbids foreigners to go to China in the name and identity of tourists to receive transplants. In China, donations of human organs require the donor's written consent. At the same time, just like many other countries, China is very strict in the administration of human organ donors and medical institutions engaged in human organ transplantation. Hospitals not qualified for human organ transplantation cannot perform such surgeries. Human organ transplantation operations cannot be performed without consent from the donor and his/her relatives or when medical standards are not met. The description in the article, that "victims are arrested and have their organs stolen and used for transplantation", is in absolute contradiction with common sense and is extremely ridiculous.
Since 1 January 2015, China has completely stopped taking executed prisoners as a source of organs for transplantation. In recent years, China has successfully completed a transition in terms of organ sources. At present, there are 178 qualified medical institutions engaged in human organ transplantation in China. Donated and transplanted organs gradually increase in number year by year. As of May 2018, there have been altogether 17,600 cases of after-death organ donation, including over 49,000 major organs donated, and more than 65,000 organ transplantation operations. In 2017, there have been 5,146 cases of organ donation and more than 16,000 organ transplantation surgeries, ranking second in the world. In the first five months of 2018, there have been 2,459 cases of organ donation and 7,559 transplantation surgeries, increasing by 24.6% and 20.7% respectively compared with the same period last year.
The progress China has made in organ transplantation has also been recognized by the international community. Some individual cult groups maliciously fabricate and spread rumors of "China removing organs from living people". Their true intentions are becoming increasingly clear to and rejected by the international community. In May 2018, at a side meeting on organ transplantation during the 71st World Health Assembly, the WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed appreciation to China for its contribution in the field of organ transplantation. At the 27th International Congress of the Transplantation Society on 1 July, Mr. Jose Nunez, Director of the WHO transplantation program, said that as a WHO official responsible for supervising the world's transplantation work and a surgeon specializing in transplantation, he simply doesn't think it can be true that between 60,000 and 100,000 organ transplants are performed in China every year. This claimed figure is equivalent to the total amount of organ transplants across the whole world yearly. In August 2017, Professor Francis Delmonico, who had been skeptical about China's organ transplant system, told the media during the Chinese Transplantation Congress in Kunming that doubts and rumors about China's transplant practices are dispersing as the number of donation cases increases and China completely banned the use of organs extracted from executed prisoners. In its 2017 Human Rights Report for China, the US State Department also had to acknowledge the achievements China has made in reforming and developing the organ transplant system.
Falun Gong is an outright anti-human, anti-science and anti-society cult. The claim that "the Chinese Government harvests organs of living Falun Gong followers" is a blatant lie. It's a farce, a scam, fabricated and performed by Falun Gong to discredit China, deceive the international community, and disguise its true nature as a cult. After being banned by the Chinese Government according to law, Falun Gong has been clamoring and causing trouble around the world swearing horrific slogans and performing "persecution" tragedies. To gain sympathy, its practitioners would even perform a live drama of "organ harvesting from living people" in their parade. The media outlets of Falun Gong openly instigate its practitioners to forge evidence. For example, in the article "More Fellow Practitioners in Mainland China Should Take the Responsibility of Providing Demonstration Materials on Torture", they advise people to ask other practitioners to be models and use similar items as stage property for photos. Dr. Campbell Fraser, a well-known Australian expert on organ transplantation, once said that the organ harvesting claim of Falun Gong is a lie intended to gain sympathy and achieve political purposes.
It is sincerely hoped that Dagens Samhälle can look at China from an objective perspective, instead of stubbornly wearing colored glasses and smearing China based on false materials released in 2006 and lies of anti-China activists. It is also hoped that Dagens Samhälle has the courage to publish our letter to let the readers learn about the truth and help them make objective judgments. The Chinese Embassy in Sweden is willing to conduct open and candid dialogues on relevant topics with Dagens Samhälle and its readers in a positive and constructive manner.