Rally Against Organ Harvesting to Be Held Ahead of CCP Premier’s Visit

Liu Li, whose family members in China were arrested for their spiritual belief, speaks at a rally held by Falun Gong practitioners in Canberra, Australia, on March 27, 2024. (The Epoch Times)

International human rights lawyer, David Matas, will speak on the lawn of Parliament House in Canberra next week, calling on the government to continue exposing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) organ harvesting abuses.

On June 4, the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, rallygoers will urge members of Parliament to publicly call for the end to the 25-year persecution of the faith group, Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa.

Rallygoers will also call for the release of all family members of Australian residents detained by the brutal CCP regime.

It comes two weeks ahead of CCP Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Australia, where he will hold political and business talks in Sydney, Canberra, and Perth.

Australia is committed to upholding human rights and is an original signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. It also participates in the United Nations Human Rights Council.

But Mr. Matas, who works around the world to bring awareness to forced organ harvesting in China, says “cosmetic” laws are not enough to stop the CCP from killing Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience for their organs.

The Canadian-based lawyer has published a number of reports on the systematic practice since 2006 with the late David Kilgour, former Canadian MP (pdf).

In the latest report from 2016, the two concluded that the CCP was performing up to 100,000 transplants a year, as opposed to the CCP’s official figure of 10,000.

John Deller, a committee member of the Falun Dafa Association of Australia, said the country’s current review of the Modern Slavery Act should include forced organ harvesting.

“Most people think organ harvesting refers to coercive and abusive kidney transplantation. Human trafficking laws are not yet grappling with the more insidious form of this atrocity perfected by the Chinese communist regime on Falun Gong practitioners,” he told The Epoch Times.

“Australians should be concerned by Chinese communist influence. If left unchecked it can corrupt our values by emphasising material gain over the sanctity of human life,” Mr. Deller said.

Mr. Matas previously wrote in The Epoch Times revealed the CCP’s motivations behind forced organ harvesting, saying it was a funding “bonanza” for the Chinese public sector.

“The hospital system quickly realised that the arbitrarily, indefinitely detained demonised Falun Gong population was so large that selling their organs could become a profitable global business,” he said.

“That industrialisation of the selling of organs became, for the health system, an addiction. New organs were constantly needed to keep the machinery in motion.

“The killing of Falun Gong for their organs became very large, and the repression of Falun Gong very effective. With the mass detention of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, the organs of Uyghurs has also become a source of transplants.”

Lucy Zhao, the president of the Falun Dafa Association of Australia, hopes the federal government will not just focus on “normalising ties” with Beijing while human rights violations go ignored.

She hopes the Australian government will send a clear message to the Beijing premier during his visit, and call for the end to the persecution.

“There are many human rights violations occurring in China today and Falun Gong practitioners represent the largest persecuted group in China,” she said.