When Netflix hit a jackpot with the South Korean thriller series Squid Game earlier this year, the streaming platform hadn't imagined the bizarre reasons for which the game show would come under the spotlight. The show's dystopian storyline pits players against each other in the quest to emerge victorious in deadly contests to win a cash prize. In a side plot to the story, human beings are sold off for their organs. In a rather alarming human rights report, the latter part of the show bears a deadly resemblance to what's happening to dissidents and protesters in China.
As per the reports, the Chinese government is presiding over an organ-trafficking network that harvests 100,000 dissidents and political prisoners' organs every year, which is now infamously termed as 'China's real-life Squid Game'. The Chinese government, however, furiously dissed the claims that they operated a state-sponsored organ harvesting program to traffic organs of political prisoners and dissidents held in various internment camps spread across the length and breadth of the country.
Extensive human trafficking ring in China resembles the plot of 'Squid Game'
The totalitarian government of China is reported to be involved in human organ trafficking practices removing hearts, kidneys, livers, and corneas from 100,000 dissidents and prisoners in secret every year. Human rights groups claim that the international community has been powerless to stop the slaughter so far. Earlier this year, the UN commissioned several Special Rapporteurs from the Human Rights Council to investigate the claims of state-sponsored organ harvesting in China. A report by the experts said that Beijing was 'targeting specific ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities held in detention' and raking in a billion dollars a year.
The examiners also unearthed chilling witness testimonies shedding light on the horrific 'kill to order' market that is reinvigorated by China's organ harvesting program. They 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." The minorities reportedly targeted by China's "organ harvesting" program include Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims and Christians lodged in detention centres.
In China, recipients of organs can book surgeries at the time and place of their choice, unlike other countries, which follow the process approved by the WHO. In the WHO-approved process, the deceased's organs are first matched with the most critical patient on the transplant list and who can make it in time to the hospital for the surgery. In China, however, the recipients are NOT 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, which shows the implicit role of China's government in supporting and allowing organ harvesting.
Chinese surgeons are taking part in 'China's real-life Squid Game'
The report by the UN Human Rights office also noted that health care workers, including doctors, surgeons, nurses, and others 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. A world-renowned organ transplant doctor, Russell Strong AC even issued an urgent warning for hospitals and universities around the globe to ban Chinese surgeons, claiming they are taking part in a real-life 'Squid Game'. Professor Russell told Daily Mail Australia that many Chinese medical trainees take what they've learned in the West and use it to harvest human organs back home in a terrifying 'kill-to-order' market that is similar to a side plot in the South Korean Netflix series Squid Game.
"I refused to train them unless I had a signed document from their institution that they would not go back and use executed prisoners as organ donors, " Prof Strong said. "I never received one response, so I refused to take them on." "Hospitals and universities should stop receiving and training any surgeons from China, not just for transplants, any surgeons because the Chinese doctors know what is happening and they in a way are covering up all of this, " Prof Strong further added. Professor Strong also warned that some institutions are putting monetary profits above human rights. "They pay high fees to study at our universities so everyone is scared to say something, " he said. "It's all to do with money. It's money over human rights and the human rights abuses in China are outlandish. They're perpetrating genocide on the Uyghur people and I think it's time we woke up in this country and stop kowtowing to China."
