Australian expert: China helps to combat global organ trafficking

Campbell Fraser, an international human organ trade expert from Australia. [Photo provided by Campbell Fraser]

China is helping the world to fight against the problem of organ trafficking, an international human organ trade expert from Australia said during a recent interview with China Radio International (CRI).

Campbell Fraser with Griffith University in Brisbane has just attended the two-day Pontifical Academy Summit (PAS) on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism.

During the PAS, Jiefu Huang, professor and chairman of the China National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee, said China had imposed a total ban on the use of executed prisoners' organs for transplantation since the beginning of 2015.

Fraser said he has monitored global trends on organ trafficking for years and his research has shown that foreigners have stopped coming to China for organ transplantation based on his interviews with over 1000 organ buyers, sellers, brokers, and doctors.

"I'm absolutely convinced that the reforms in China are absolutely true, and for that reason, I believe the international community should be supportive of the changes in China and encouraging China, and to keep going on this wonderful journey they are going on, and not listening to the political propaganda of people who are trying to stop our progress," Fraser said.

Fraser revealed that his research prompted harassment from Falun Gong cult members just because it was inconsistent with the claims made by Falun Gong, "I had a lot of personal troubles with Falun Gong. When I presented an academic paper at the Hong Kong transplantation conference last year, they complained to my employer, they complained to the conference organizers. When I was speaking, they interrupted me, shouted at me, and generally tried to stop me speaking. "

Fraser had thought that perhaps he was the only person harassed by Falun Gong, but later he found that several other scholars who have not supported the claims made by Falun Gong have also been harassed by cult members.

The Chinese government banned Falun Gong as a cult in 1999, accusing it of disguising as a religious group to brainwash practitioners, extracting money from them, and even encouraging practitioners to set themselves alight.

Although Falun Gong made unfair claims about the Chinese government, China has made progress on cracking down on organ trafficking, Fraser said. China is not only solving its organ trafficking problem in China, but also actually assisting the world with solving the organ trafficking problem.

Speaking on behalf of China at the PAS summit which concluded on Feb. 8, Jiefu Huang proposed the establishment of a World Health Organization (WHO) task force to fulfill the mission of the PAS in order to eradicate organ trafficking.

"China is such an important country, a global leader, so it's really important for China to lead by example, and this is one of the greatest things of having them, China actually gives some good ideas, we are looking at China, we can use some of the ideas to solve the problems of trafficking in Egypt, in Pakistan, and India, and a few other countries," Fraser said.