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Nov 23 et seq. 2021 The following remarks were prepared by Hon. David Kilgour, J.D. for an Uyghur human rights event taking place on Parliament Hill on November 23rd, 2021. For a full biography of Mr. Kilgour, please visit David-kilgour.com. Friends of the 56 recognized cultural communities across China, There are many important topics for our conference on China this week to consider, including what has happened to tennis star Peng Shuai. Most important perhaps are the range of proposals made by the all-party House subcommittee on human rights last year. Permit me to provide some context to realities there by addressing organ pillaging. China appears to be unique among almost 200 independent countries today in that its organ transplantations are government-managed. In mid-2006, David Matas and I did an independent investigation into persistent claims of forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners. We released two reports and a 2009 book titled Bloody Harvest. We concluded that since 2001 Beijing directed a network of forced vital organ-harvesting from prisoners of conscience--primarily Falun Gong. The organs were then sold to wealthy recipients in China and foreign ‘organ tourists’. Specifically, we found beyond any doubt from 18 kinds of evidence that between the years 2001 and 2005, at least 41,500 organs were sourced from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience across China, who were killed during the removals. Ethan Gutmann, author of The Slaughter (2014), later placed the persecution of the Falun Gong, Uyghur, Tibetan, and house Christian communities in context. He explains how he arrived at his “best estimate” that organs of 65,000 Falun Gong and “two to four thousand” Uyghurs, Tibetans and house Christians were pillaged in the 2000- 2008 period. Matas, Gutmann and I released an Update in 2016 in Washington, Ottawa and Brussels (accessible from www.endorganpillaging.org. ). It provided a careful examination of the transplant programs of hundreds of hospitals across China. We concluded that over two decades, the party-state directed a network of organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience. Our findings helped the US Congress and the European Parliament to pass nearly identical resolutions condemning the Chinese regime for harvesting prisoners of conscience. Based on the 2019 China Tribunal findings in the U.K., we learn that the Chinese authorities are still at it. At least ninety thousand transplants a year and the assurance of a back-up organ should the original organ fail is an inhuman commerce that has no equal anywhere. This reality in China can only be explained as resulting from the murders of readily available ‘prisoners’ – Falun Gong, Tibetans, Uyghur Muslims and Christians.  China Tribunal presenting 2019 findings, COVID-19 It should be no surprise to nationals of countries with independent media that during about 40 days in late 2019 and early 2020 Beijing concealed and falsified information about the spread of COVID-19 within China. Xi Jinping pressured the World Health Organization (WHO) to delay issuing a global warning about the virus. With the world mostly unaware of the mortal danger, the virus began its march across the world.
When COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, Taiwan, for example, moved quickly to screen flights from there on December 31, 2019; ban entry by Wuhan residents on January 23, 2020; institute intensive testing and contact tracing; and bar all visitors from China on February 6th. If the WHO and its member-nations had adapted Taiwan’s practices, many of the millions of infections and at least five million deaths worldwide could have been avoided. For example, the biggest influx of COVID-19 carriers into Europe was about 250,000 Chinese citizens, with two-thirds flying back after their yearly new year’s vacation in China to their garment industry jobs in Italy. By January 11, 2021, there were 2.2 million confirmed cases in Italy and 79,203 deaths. European Union governments, Australia, and the U.S. demanded an independent investigation on how COVID-19 spread to humans. Xi until mid-January, 2021 blocked WHO and investigators from various countries entering Wuhan. Beijing continues to resist sharing data with the world about the origin of COVID-19 that might help combat future pandemics. Conclusion Former premier Wen Jiabao said some years ago, “The reform in China has come to a critical stage. Without the success of political structural reform, it is impossible for us to fully institute economic structural reform. The gains we have made… may be lost, new problems that have cropped up in China’s society cannot be fundamentally resolved and such historical tragedy as the Cultural Revolution may happen again.” Unfortunately, under Xi Jinping in recent years the rule of law/democratic reforms sought by Wen ended. Xi has in effect re-interpreted democracy as totalitarianism, including opposition to multi-party elections and independence of judges. Xi (習近平) is attempting to change the narrative by stressing that his government has eliminated extreme poverty in China, Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) last May courageously observed that “there are over 600 million people whose monthly income is barely 1,000 yuan [US$155], not enough to rent a room.” Democratic governments and our private sectors should examine why they are supporting the violation of so many universal values in order to seek to increase profits through trade and business with China. For years, this has resulted in national jobs being outsourced to China and continuous increases in our bi-lateral trade deficits. Canada alone has lost about 600,000 manufacturing jobs since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Are the rest of us so focused on access to inexpensive consumer goods that we ignore the human, social and natural environment costs paid by hardworking Chinese nationals to produce them? Thank you. |
