[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 93 (Friday, June 29, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1255-E1256]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




ON THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA'S ROLE IN THE EXECUTION OF PRISONERS 
                    AND TRAFFICKING OF THEIR ORGANS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 28, 2001

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I want to share with you this statement 
presented before a hearing at the House International Relations 
Subcommittee for Human Rights and International Operations on June 27, 
by Wang Guoqi, a physician from the People's Republic of China. Mr. 
Wang was a skin and burn specialist at the Paramilitary Police Tianjin 
General Brigade Hospital. Mr. Wang writes that his work ``required me 
to remove skin and corneas from the corpses of over one hundred 
executed prisoners, and, on a couple of occasions, victims of 
intentionally botched executions.''
  In a very graphic example, Mr. Wang describes how he harvested the 
skin off of a man who was still living and breathing.

[[Page E1256]]

  What kind of government skins alive its own citizens?
  I urge our colleagues to read this statement and to keep this 
egregious abuse of human rights in mind when voting on China's trade 
status this year.

TESTIMONY OF WANG GUOQI, FORMER DOCTOR AT A CHINESE PEOPLE'S LIBERATION 
                             ARMY HOSPITAL

       My name is Wang Guoqi and I am a 38-year-old physician from 
     the People's Republic of China. In 1981, after standard 
     childhood schooling and graduation, I joined the People's 
     Liberation Army. By 1984, 1 was studying medicine at the 
     Paramilitary Police Paramedical School. I received advanced 
     degrees in Surgery and Human Tissue Studies, and consequently 
     became a specialist in the burn victims unit at the 
     Paramilitary Police Tianjin General Brigade Hospital in 
     Tianjin. My work required me to remove skin and corneas from 
     the corpses of over one hundred executed prisoners, and, on a 
     couple of occasions, victims of intentionally botched 
     executions. It is with deep regret and remorse for my actions 
     that I stand here today testifying against the practices of 
     organ and tissue sales from death row prisoners.
       My involvement in harvesting the skin from prisoners began 
     while performing research on cadavers at the Beijing People's 
     Liberation Army Surgeons Advanced Studies School, in 
     Beijing's 304th Hospital. This hospital is directly 
     subordinate to the PLA, and so connections between doctors 
     and officers were very close. In order to secure a corpse 
     from the execution grounds, security officers and court units 
     were given ``red envelopes'' with cash amounting to anywhere 
     between 200-500 RMB per corpse. Then, after execution, the 
     body would be rushed to the autopsy room rather than the 
     crematorium, and we would extract skin, kidneys, livers, 
     bones, and corneas for research and experimental purposes. I 
     learned the process of preserving human skin and tissue for 
     burn victims, and skin was subsequently sold to needy burn 
     victims for 10 RMB per square centimeter.
       After completing my studies in Beijing, and returning to 
     Tianjin's Paramilitary Police General Brigade Hospital, I 
     assisted hospital directors Liu Lingfeng and Song Heping in 
     acquiring the necessary equipment to build China's first skin 
     and tissue storehouse. Soon afterward, I established close 
     ties with Section Chief Xing, a criminal investigator of the 
     Tianjin Higher People's Court.
       Acquiring skin from executed prisoners usually took place 
     around major holidays or during the government's Strike Hard 
     campaigns, when prisoners would be executed in groups. 
     Section Chief Xing would notify us of upcoming executions. We 
     would put an
       Once notified of an execution, our section would prepare 
     all necessary equipment and arrive at the Beicang Crematorium 
     in plain clothes with all official license plates on our 
     vehicles replaced with civilian ones. This was done on orders 
     of the criminal investigation section. Before removing the 
     skin, we would cut off the ropes that bound the criminals' 
     hands and remove their clothing. Each criminal had 
     identification papers in his or her pocket that detailed the 
     executee's name, age, profession, work unit, address, and 
     crime. Nowhere on these papers was there any mention of 
     voluntary organ donation, and clearly the prisoners did not 
     know how their bodies would be used after death.
       We had to work quickly in the crematorium, and 10-20 
     minutes were generally enough to remove all skin from a 
     corpse. Whatever remained was passed over to the crematorium 
     workers. Between five and eight times a year, the hospital 
     would send a number of teams to execution sites to harvest 
     skin. Each team could process up to four corpes, and they 
     would take as much as was demanded by both our hospital and 
     fraternal hospitals. Because this system allowed us to treat 
     so many burn victims, our department became the most 
     reputable and profitable department in Tianjin.
       Huge profits prompted our hospital to urge other 
     departments to design similar programs. The urology 
     department thus began its program of kidney transplant 
     surgeries. The complexity of the surgery called for a price 
     of $120-150,000 RMB per kidney.
       With such high prices, primarily wealthy or high-ranking 
     people were able to buy kidneys. If they had the money, the 
     first step would be to find a donor-recipient match. In the 
     first case of kidney transplantation in August, 1990, 1 
     accompanied the urology surgeon to the higher court and 
     prison to collect blood samples from four death-row 
     prisoners. The policeman escorting us told the prisoners that 
     we were there to check their health conditions; therefore, 
     the prisoners did not know the purpose for their blood 
     samples or that their organs might be up for sale. Out of the 
     four samplings, one basic and sub-group blood match was found 
     for the recipient, and the prisoner's kidneys were deemed fit 
     for transplantation.
       Once a donor was confirmed, our hospital held a joint 
     meeting with the urology department, burn surgery department, 
     and operating room personnel. We scheduled tentative plans to 
     prepare the recipient for the coming kidney and discussed 
     concrete issues of transportation and personnel. Two days 
     before execution, we received final confirmation from the 
     higher court, and on the day of the execution we arrived at 
     the execution site in plain clothes. In the morning, the 
     donating prisoner had received a heparin shot to prevent 
     blood clotting and ease the organ extraction process. When 
     all military personnel and condemned prisoners would arrive 
     at the site, the organ donating prisoner was brought forth 
     for the first execution.
       At the execution site, a colleague, Xing Tongyi, and I were 
     responsible for carrying the stretcher. Once the hand-cuffed 
     and leg-ironed prisoner had been shot, a bailiff removed the 
     leg irons. Xing Tongyi and I had 15 seconds to bring the 
     executee to the waiting ambulance. Inside the ambulance, the 
     best urologist surgeons removed both kidneys, and rushed back 
     to the waiting recipient at the hospital. Meanwhile, our burn 
     surgery department waited for the execution of the following 
     three prisoners, and followed their corpses to the 
     crematorium where we removed skin in a small room next
       Although I performed this procedure nearly a hundred times 
     in the following years, it was an incident in October 1995 
     that has tortured my conscience to no end. We were sent to 
     Hebei Province to extract kidneys and skin. We arrived one 
     day before the execution of a man sentenced to death for 
     robbery and the murder of a would-be witness. Before 
     execution, I administered a shot of heparin to prevent blood 
     clotting to the prisoner. A nearby policeman told him it was 
     a tranquilizer to prevent unnecessary suffering during the 
     execution. The criminal responded by giving thanks to the 
     government.
       At the site, the execution commander gave the order, 
     ``Go!,'' and the prisoner was shot to the ground. Either 
     because the executioner was nervous, aimed poorly, or 
     intentionally misfired to keep the organs intact, the 
     prisoner had not yet died, but instead lay convulsing on the 
     ground. We were ordered to take him to the ambulance anyway 
     where urologists Wang Zhifu, Zhao Qingling and Liu Qiyou 
     extracted his kidneys quickly and precisely. When they 
     finished, the prisoner was still breathing and his heart 
     continued to beat. The execution commander asked if they 
     might fire a second shot to finish him off, to which the 
     county court staff replied, ``Save that shot. With both 
     kidneys out, there is no way he can survive.'' The urologists 
     rushed back to the hospital with the kidneys, the county 
     staff and executioner left the scene, and eventually the 
     paramilitary policemen disappeared as well. We burn surgeons 
     remained inside the ambulance to harvest the skin. We could 
     hear people outside the ambulance, and fearing it was the 
     victim's family who might force their way inside, we left our 
     job half-done, and the half-dead corpse was thrown in a 
     plastic bag onto the flatbed of the crematorium truck. As we 
     left in the ambulance, we were pelted by stones from behind.
       After this incident, I have had horrible, reoccurring 
     nightmares. I have participated in a practice that serves the 
     regime's political and economic goals far more than it 
     benefits the patients. I have worked at execution sites over 
     a dozen times, and have taken the skin from over one hundred 
     prisoners in crematoriums. Whatever impact I have made in the 
     lives of burn victims and transplant patients does not excuse 
     the unethical and immoral manner of extracting organs.
       I resolved to no longer participate in the organ business, 
     and my wife supported my decision. I submitted a written 
     report requesting reassignment to another job. This request 
     was flatly denied on the grounds that no other job matched my 
     skills. I began to refuse to take part in outings to 
     execution sites and crematoriums, to which the hospital 
     responded by blaming and criticizing me for my refusals. I 
     was forced to submit a pledge that I would never expose their 
     practices of procuring organs and the process by which the 
     organs and skin were preserved and sold for huge profits. 
     They threatened me with severe consequences, and began to 
     train my replacement. Until the day I left China in the 
     spring of 2000, they were still harvesting organs from 
     execution sites.
       I hereby expose all these terrible things to the light in 
     the hope that this will help to put an end to this evil 
     practice.

     

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