Netflix’s recently hit a jackpot with the release of Squid Game, a Korean thriller series, which tells the story of debt-ridden people competing for a huge cash prize in a deadly series of children’s games. 

The series had the viewers captivated with its dystopian storyline that pits players against each other in the quest to emerge victorious in deadly contests to win a cash prize. The show has been streamed by 111 million users in its first 28 days, making it Netflix’s biggest ever series launch.

In a side plot to the story, human beings are sold off for their organs. While the Korean drama is obviously fictitious and imaginary, this aspect of the series bears stark resemblance to what’s happening to dissidents and protesters in China. 

100,000 dissidents and political prisoners have their organs harvested every year in China in a “kill to order” market

As per Human Rights groups, the Chinese government is presiding over an organ-trafficking network that harvests 100,000 dissidents and political prisoners organs every year. 

The UN Human Rights office says the most common organs removed from the prisoners are reportedly hearts, kidneys, livers and cornea. In June this year, the independent experts commissioned by the UN to investigate claims of state-sponsored organ harvesting in China said Beijing was ‘targeting specific ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities held in detention’ and raking in a billion dollars a year.

This assertion was furiously denied by China, rubbishing the claims that they operated a state-sponsored organ harvesting program to traffic organs of political prisoners and dissidents held in various internment camps interspersed across the length and breadth of the country. 

Even though China denies the existence of any state-sponsored program for organ harvesting, 9 UN Special Rapporteurs from the Human Rights Council spent more than 12 months unearthing chilling witness testimonies that shed light on the appalling ‘kill to order’ market that is reinvigorated by China’s organ harvesting program. 

The examiners claimed that they had received “credible information that detainees from ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities may be forcibly subjected to blood tests and organ examinations such as ultrasound and x-rays, without their informed consent; while other prisoners are not required to undergo such examinations.”

They further added: “The results of the examinations are reportedly registered in a database of living organ sources that facilitates organ allocation.”

Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims and Christians among those who are forcibly enlisted by China for organ harvesting

Among the minorities targeted by China’s “organ harvesting” program include Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims and Christians lodged in detention centres. 

The findings of the UN Human Rights office also points to the grim reality that health care workers, including doctors, surgeons, nurses and others, who are sworn to protect patients’ lives, are helping Beijing in their organ harvesting program.

“Some prisoners receive death threats and threats of their organ being harvested by the police if they do not comply with the law enforcement agencies or refuse to give up their beliefs,” the statement said. 

In China, recipients of organs can book surgeries at the time and place of their choice. This is not possible elsewhere as surgeons cannot predict when an organ required for a particular recipient will be made available or when a person who has elected to be an organ donor will die. 

Other countries follow the ‘ethical’ process approved by the WHO, where the deceased’s organs are first matched with the most critical patient on the transplant list and who is most likely to make it in time to the hospital for the surgery. For many ailing people, it takes years to receive organs that match with their requirements. 

However, in China, there’s no such process where the recipients are put on a transplant list and asked to wait for their turn. Instead, they have the authority to book their surgeries as per their convenience, highlighting the implicit role of China’s government in supporting and allowing organ harvesting. 

The undercover phone calls made to Chinese hospitals as part of the independent hearings in 2019 demonstrate how patients can choose to get their surgeries done under the ‘kill to order’ system. In one instance, a doctor corroborates the existence of ‘abundance of organs’ which arrive ‘every month’ in his hospital. 

China’s organ transplant numbers misleading: Susie Hughes

As per Susie Hughes, the Executive Director of The International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China, Beijing’s claim that they are performing 10,000 to 20,000 do not add up. She says a recent statistical analysis of China’s organ transplant system shows their numbers are misleading. 

“When you examine hospital revenues, bed utilisation rates and the number of surgical teams from the official Chinese data… the figure is more likely to be between 60,000 to 100,000 transplants per year,” Hughes was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail. 

The Chinese Tribunal found that Uyghur Muslim minorities detained in various detention camps were used as ‘organ bank’ or emergency backstop for critical Chinese coronavirus patients. 

Jinato Liu, one of the Falun Gong practitioners who was imprisoned for over two years gave a bone-chilling testimony to the expert panel. He said he was locked into a cell with eight drug addicts who were commonly induced to abuse Falun Gong practitioners. The guards knew everything what was happening inside, underscoring the state involvement in torturing people before their organs were eventually harvested. 

“Don’t go against the Communist Party. Don’t resist them. If you do, when the time comes, you won’t even know how you have died,” said Liu while describing about the advice he got from a prison doctor sympathetic to him.

China denies the organ harvesting claims, says witness testimonies are from actors

Instead of acknowledging the scourge, Beijing has doubled down on the rhetoric, denying the existence of rampant forced human organ harvesting practiced in China and calling the UN’s statement ‘fabricated’ and ‘defamatory’.

On top of it, China has rejected the heart-rending witness testimonies as those coming from ‘actors’ paid to malign the country.