PRACTITIONERS of Chinese spiritual mediation Falun Gong have lined the streets of Glen Innes to protest against live organ harvesting.
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The practice of Falun Gong was publicly introduced in 1992 and by 1999 more than 10 per cent of the Chinese population were engaged in the meditative practice.
Seen as a threat to the Communist Party of China, the group claims the government began to arrest practitioners and harvest their organs.
Falun Gong protester Lichen Zhang said that Chinese culture dictates that the whole body must be cremated or buried, as a result there is no system of organ donation.
Yet the number of organ transplant operations continues to grow.
“Since people began to practice Falun Gong, more than 1.5 million operations have been done, over a million people have been killed for their organs,” she said.
“In Australia, it’s documented that you have at least 50 patients that have been to China for an organ transplant, they call it transplant tourism.
“You have two doctors from Westmead Hospital in Sydney that used to teach the transplant doctors in China.”
Practitioners of Falun Gong now have their blood tested in their homes and are put on a register for organ transplantation.
“In China you can have a liver within two weeks, you can have a heart within weeks, all the army and state hospitals are involved, it’s a systematic operation because they distribute people wherever required,” Ms Zhang said.
“I don’t consider to go back to China because I would be arrested.
“I escaped from China in 2001 because the arresting was widespread, it’s forced a whole nation to persecute this group of people.”
It’s claimed people now request the organs of Falun Gong practitioners because of the healthy lifestyle participants lead.
The practitioners have asked Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to call on Chinese leader Xi Jinping to stop the practice.
They will travel to more than 200 regional towns and cities to gain support.
