WOIPFG’s Investigative Report on the Alleged Organ Harvesting of Living Falun Gong Practitioners at Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital and Its Staff Members Suspected of Participation

Sep 11, 2023

Address: 32 West Second Section, First Ring Road, Qingyang District, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province

Foreword

Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital has obtained the qualifications for all solid organ transplants from the National Health and Medical Commission, and has carried out all organ transplant projects clinically. The organ transplant center of the hospital is one of the few clinical transplant centers in China that integrates multiple organ transplants. In 2009, it ranked No. 28 among more than 160 transplant centers nationwide. In the 2017 telephone investigation, doctors replied: Liver transplants are all treated as emergencies, and the waiting time for transplants is short, and hundreds of cases can be performed a year. The growth and development of organ transplantation in this hospital is in sync with the CCP’s national criminal campaign of living-donor organ harvesting. In the context of this national genocide campaign, the hospital is suspected of participating in the crime of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners and members of other groups. In view of the background of the CCP’s state crime of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners, the Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital is a key unit that is seriously suspected of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners.

Hospital overview

Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital is a national tertiary level-A hospital.[1] The hospital has 4,132 open beds, 6,875 employees, 1,068 experts with senior professional titles, and 54 recipients for special government allowances from the State Council. The hospital has medical equipment such as Da Vinci robotic surgery system, PET-CT, TrueBeam linear accelerator, etc. It has carried out high-tech operations such as organ transplantation, cell transplantation, large blood vessel, valve replacement, etc., and has obtained all solid organ transplantation qualifications from the National Health and Medical Commission, and clinically carry out all organ transplant projects.

I. The hospital has a "Key Laboratory of Organ Transplantation and Transformational Medicine in Sichuan Province", which has received tens of millions yuan of national funding

The establishment of the "Sichuan Provincial Key Laboratory of Organ Transplantation and Transformational Medicine" is based on the Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences and the Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital Organ Transplantation Research Institute. In 2007, the hospital established the Institute of Organ Transplantation, as well as the Organ Transplantation Center to carry out clinical trials of kidney and liver transplantation; in 2008, it established the Laboratory of Cell Biology and Molecular Biology; in 2010, it established cell transplantation center and started to build the standard laminar flow laboratory; and following that, it established the transplantation immunology laboratory, experimental animal laboratory and pathology laboratory. In December 2011, the Sichuan Provincial Department of Science and Technology approved the laboratory as the "Key Laboratory of Organ Transplantation and Transformational Medicine in Sichuan Province".[2]

Main research directions:

1. Mechanism, molecular diagnosis and drug target research of transplantation immune rejection

2. Clinical transformational research on transplant immune tolerance

3. Clinical transformation research of cell transplantation

4. Clinical research on brain dead (DBD) and cardiac dead (DCD) donors

5. Transformational medical research of xenotransplantation

6. Research on the correlation between nutrition metabolism and human diseases

The total amount of scientific research funds is about 11.13 million RMB.

II. In 2009, the hospital’s organ transplant center ranked 28th among more than 160 transplant centers nationwide

Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital Organ Transplant Center is one of the few clinical transplant centers in China that integrates multiple organ transplants, cell transplants, hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery, urology and endoscopic surgery, and is approved by the Ministry of Health as a designated hospital for liver transplantation and kidney transplantation. The development of the department focuses on transplantation surgery, based on hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery and urological surgery, and now carries out clinical liver, kidney, small intestine, pancreas, pancreas-kidney combined transplantation and liver-intestine combined transplantation techniques and conventional hepatobiliary-pancreatic surgery. In June 2009, it opened the first and only organ transplant clinic in the province; in 2009, it ranked 28th among more than 160 transplant centers in China, and in 2010, it became the training base for organ transplant nurses in Sichuan Province.[3] In 2019, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital performed 197 cases of large organ transplants such as small intestine transplants, heart transplants, lung transplants, liver transplants, and kidney transplants.[4]

III. The transplant center is developing rapidly and has many beds

The Organ Transplant Center was established in March 2007 and has achieved great development in a short period of time. As of January 2011, it had developed into a clinical surgery center with more than 100 beds, 12 doctors and 27 nurses.[5]

IV. Telephone investigation

Key note: Living-donor organ harvesting, emergency liver transplantation, and short waiting time in the hospital

Investigation target: Dr. Zhou from the Department of Transplantation, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital

Investigation date: May 5, 2016 (+86-2887393722)

Highlights:

Dr. Zhou: I started (doing transplant surgery) in 2012. At that time, the livers were all harvested in the hospital, and none of them were from the execution ground...

Investigator: So when the donors were brought in, theirs organs would be taken, and after the harvesting, they would be sent away?

Dr. Zhou: After organ harvesting, they would be sent to where they meant to be, the mortuary or the crematorium.[6]

(Recording 1. Download: MP3 ; Transcript Download: pdf 1)

Investigation target: Dr. Yang from the Department of Transplantation, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital

Investigation date: December 15, 2017 (+86-2887393722)

Highlights: If you want to do liver transplantation early, try to talk to our director more; it should not be a problem; generally speaking, not everyone in Sichuan can afford liver transplantation; we always treat liver transplantation as emergencies. For instance, we’ll do it tonight, then we have to inform the recipient immediately; (the surgery) will cost 350,000 to 400,000 yuan, and that does not include the fee for liver donor, and the liver donation fee does not exceed 100,000 yuan; there are many donors around the Spring Festival, and the Chinese New Year is the busiest time.[7]

(Recording 2. Download: MP3; Transcript Download: pdf 182)

Investigation target: Doctor on Duty for Liver Transplantation at Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital

Phone number: +862887393722 Date: 03/29/2017

“Last year, it seems to be more than 60 cases [of liver transplantation]…A little bit more [cases] in the recent months in this year. For example, last Sunday we did one, today [Wednesday] we did another one.”
“Since we excised [some organs] last night, so we have both liver and kidney transplants today.”

(Download Recording 3 MP3， please see Addendum 71)

Investigation target: Doctor from Medical Office, Liver Transplant, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital[8]

Investigation date: March 30, 2017 (+86-2887393722)

Highlights: What we do here is three kidney transplants, that is, three pairs of six kidney transplants. The waiting time is generally relatively fast. We can do hundreds of cases a year.

(Download Recording 4 MP3， please see Addendum 72)

V. During the pandemic, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital completed two difficult lung transplants in one day

On March 12, 2020, the lung transplantation team of Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, led by Chen Jingyu of Wuxi People's Hospital, completed two lung transplant surgeries for critically ill patients within one day.[9]

According to Sina.com, on June 16, 2021, Yang Hongji, Director of the Organ Transplantation Center of Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, said, "Five operations (including organ harvesting operations) were performed simultaneously, with a multi-discipline team of more than 100 medical staff. They worked until the early hours of the next day".[10]

VI. List of Responsible Persons

SCSRMYY001 Deng Shaoping

Job Title: Vice President of Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences/Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Director of Organ Transplantation Research Institute, Expert of Provincial "Thousand Talents Program"

Personal Profile: From 1983 to 1990, he was a general surgery surgeon at Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital. 2006 to the present, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences/Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital hired Dr. Deng Shaoping as the director of the Institute of Organ Transplantation of the hospital and the vice president in order to build and improve the organ transplantation center. From 1991 to 1995, he was funded by the Swiss Confederation Scholarship to study in Transplantation Surgery of the University of Geneva School of Medicine in Switzerland, and received an M.D. degree; and completed postdoctoral training at the Harrison Institute of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, USA) from 1995 to 1998; 1998-2000, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Western Ontario University Hospital, Canada; 2000-2007, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor of Surgery, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and director of the Human Islet Transplantation Laboratory at Penn Hospital; in June 2007, Dr. Deng Shaoping was invited by Harvard University to guide the establishment of the Islet Transplantation Laboratory of Harvard University School of Medicine and served as the director of the Islet Transplantation Laboratory.[11]

SCSRMYY002 Yang Hongji

Job Title: Chief Surgeon of Organ Transplant Center. Postgraduate tutor with Luzhou Medical College and University of Electronic Science and Technology of China School of Medicine, deputy director level member of the Sichuan Provincial Organ Transplantation Committee, member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Liver Cancer Association, director of the Clinical Organ Transplantation Center of the Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital.

Personal Profile: In 1997, he received Master's degree in surgery from Jinan University in Guangzhou; from 1997 to 1999, he studied for a doctor's degree in medicine at the University of Western Ontario, Canada; from 1999 to 2003, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Transplantation and Immunology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. From 2003 to 2007, he was an organ transplant surgeon at London Health Medical Center, Canada. Since 2007, he is deputy director of Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences/Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital Organ Transplant Institute and director of the Organ Transplant Center. He is an expert in xenotransplantation, engaged in research on HDAF transgenic pigs and GAL-KNOCKOUT pigs for ten years. In 2006, he was an international youth researcher at the WTC transplant annual meeting in the United States, and won many international awards. As chief surgeon he has performed more than 300 cases of liver and kidney transplantation, and has carried out clinical combined pancreas and kidney transplantation, liver and intestine transplantation, living donor liver transplantation and split liver transplantation for children, etc. He performed the first staged hepatectomy (ALPPS) for in China.

After returning to China in 2007, he led the efforts to set up the Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital Organ Transplant Center and the Organ Transplant Research Institute, and carried out laparoscopic donor kidney transplants, split liver transplants for infants, and organ donations for brain-dead and heartbeat-dead transplants. From 1997 to 1999, he studied for a doctorate in medicine at the University of Western Ontario, Canada; from 1999 to 2003, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Transplant Immunology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. From 2003 to 2007, he was an organ transplant surgeon in London Health Medical Center, Canada. He has been engaged in clinical and scientific research of organ transplantation in Canada for a long time, and received clinical hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery and multi-organ transplantation (liver, Kidney, pancreas and small intestine) clinical and scientific professional training. A certified transplant surgeon by the College of Surgeons and Surgeons of Ontario, Canada, and a certified organ transplant surgeon by the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS, American Society of Transplant Surgeons).[12]

SCSRMYY003 Zhao Gaoping

Job Title: Deputy Chief Surgeon of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, member of the American Transplantation Society and the Society for Transplantation Surgery; member of the International Organ Transplantation Society.

Personal Profile: In 2005, he received a doctorate degree in surgery from Sichuan University. From June 2008 to April 2011, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital of Harvard Medical School, under the tutelage of Dr. Deng Shaoping, then director of the Islet Transplantation Laboratory of Massachusetts General Hospital of Harvard Medical School. His major area of research is the relationship between anti-CD45RB antibody and transplantation immune tolerance, and he participated in 71 cases of human islet isolation and the first clinical islet transplantation in Massachusetts General Hospital. After returning to China, he kept long-term communication and contact with the Islet Transplantation Laboratory of Massachusetts General Hospital, and planned to arrange to work in the laboratory for no less than 3 months every year.[13]

SCSRMYY004 Liao Shunyao

Job Title: Associate Researcher, Associate Professor; Since 2009, he’s been working at University of Electronic Science and Technology School of Medicine, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences/Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Diabetes Center and Institute of Transplantation, as an Associate Researcher. From 2000 to 2002, he worked at Transplant Immunology Laboratory, West China Medical University as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2000, he graduated from Southwest Agricultural University with a Ph.D. From 2006 to 2007, he was a Senior Researcher at School of Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine, Wonkwang University, South Korea. From 2005 to 2006, he worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Human Pancreatic Islet Laboratory, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. From 2002 to 2005, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow, Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of Geneva, Switzerland.[14]

SCSRMYY005 Wei Liang

Job Title: Associate Researcher at the Organ Transplantation Research Institute of Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital; Associate Professor at the School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology, Master Tutor.

Personal Profile: In 2009, he graduated from West China School of Clinical Medicine, Sichuan University, majoring in organ transplantation and engineering, and obtained a doctorate degree in medicine. From October 2009 to December 2013, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Organ Transplantation Center of Stanford University School of Medicine in the United States, researching new molecular diagnostic techniques, new drug targets and the induction mechanism of transplant immune tolerance after organ transplantation.[15]

SCSRMYY006 Xiaolun Huang

Job Title: Chief Surgeon of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Level-II Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, Director of Ward VII of Surgery (Surgery Center for Liver, Gallbladder, Pancreas, and Spleen) and Director of Cell Transplantation Center. Deputy director level member of National Committee of Clinical Cell Transplantation; director level member of Sichuan Provincial Organ Transplant Immunology Committee.

Personal Profile: In 1998 he got Doctor of Medicine degree at West China Medical University(major in hepatic, gallbladder, and pancreatic surgery); 1998 through 2000, he was with Organ Transplant Center, First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University as a postdoctoral researcher; in 2005 he was hired by Sun Yat-sen Medical University as an Associate Professor of Surgery; in March 2010 he was hired by Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences and Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital as a Senior talent, and by Southwest Jiaotong University as a tutor for biomedical graduate students. 2001 through 2004, he worked at University of Pennsylvania Hospital (one of the Ivy League universities in the United States) as an assistant professor of surgery; in 2006, he obtained the American practicing certificate; July 2006 through February 2010, he worked in the liver, gallbladder, pancreatic surgery and organ transplantation center of the University of Virginia Hospital, and concurrently as Director of Cell Transplantation Center. He is good at Orthotopic liver transplantation (>500 cases), partial parental liver transplantation for liver failure, and congenital biliary atresia in children.[16]

SCSRMYY007 Di Wenjia

Job Title: Attending Surgeon of Organ Transplant Center. Good at kidney and liver transplantation.[17]

SCSRMYY008 Zhang Yu

Job Title: Attending Surgeon of Organ Transplant Center. Good at liver transplantation.[18]

SCSRMYY009 Deng Xiaofan

Job Title: Deputy Chief Surgeon of Organ Transplant Center.

Personal Profile: In 1993, he graduated from the School of Medicine, Southeast University, majoring in clinical medicine. He began to work in laparoscopic minimally invasive surgery in 1997, and later obtained a doctorate from West China Medical University. Good at liver and stomach transplantation.[19]

SCSRMYY010 Xiong Wei

Job Title: Deputy Chief Surgeon of Organ Transplant Center.

Personal Profile: Proficiency in kidney transplantation. The main clinical work carried out is as follows: transplant operations such as cadaveric kidney transplantation and living donor kidney transplantation.[20]

SCSRMYY011 Ran Qing

Job Title: Chief Surgeon of Organ Transplant Center, Deputy Director of Organ Transplant Center. Member of Sichuan Provincial Organ Transplant Committee.

Personal Profile: Mainly good at kidney transplantation, etc. He is particularly knowledgeable and skilled at kidney transplantation.[21]

SCSRMYY012 Zhu Shikai

Job Title: Attending Surgeon, Organ Transplant Center

Personal Profile: Graduated from Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Good at liver and pancreas transplantation, etc.[22]

SCSRMYY013 Dou Ke

Job Title: Chief Surgeon of Organ Transplant Center, Director of East City Ward

Personal Profile: Graduated from the Department of Medicine of Chongqing Medical University in 1993, and received a master's degree in urology from Sichuan University in 2002. Good at kidney transplant surgery.[23]

SCSRMYY014 Zhao Yi

Job Title: Attending Surgeon, Organ Transplant Center

Personal Profile: Graduated from West China School of Clinical Medicine, Sichuan University, majoring in transplantation. Proficiency in liver transplantation, and perioperative management of kidney transplantation, etc.[24]

SCSRMYY015 Qiu Mingxing

Job Title: Chief Surgeon, Department Director of Urology.

Personal Profile: Bachelor of Medicine, expert in urology, master tutor. Good at organ transplantation.[25]

SCSRMYY016 Yang Xun

Job Title: Deputy Chief Surgeon of Hepatobiliary Surgery

Personal Profile: In 1982, he graduated from the Department of Medicine of North Sichuan Medical College. Good at professional liver transplantation.[26]

References:

[1]Brief Introduction of Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital

http://www.samsph.com/gaikuang-content.asp?SmallClassID=1

Link to WOIPFG files:

http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/sites/default/files/report/2016/64700_06420…

[2]Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital: Sichuan Provincial Key Laboratory of Organ Transplantation and Translational Medicine

http://www.samsph.com/tech_sub_sczdsys/148/122/1/

Link to WOIPFG files:

http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/sites/default/files/report/2016/64700_06420…

[3] Brief Introduction of Organ Transplantation Center of Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital

http://www.samsph.com/zhongdian-content.asp?id=8399

Link to WOIPFG files: