German Newspaper Reports on the CCP’s Forced Organ Harvesting

(Minghui.org) The local edition of the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) newspaper in Gelsenkirchen carried a report titled “We are turning a blind eye to organ harvesting” on December 10, 2025, Human Rights Day. It calls on Germany to pay attention to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting.

Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) published a report: “We are turning a blind eye to organ harvesting” on December 10, 2025.

Gelsenkirchen is located in the central part of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and is part of a densely populated metropolitan area. WAZ interviewed local resident Dr. Andreas Weber, the deputy director of the international human rights organization Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH), and published the article on Human Rights Day.

The article quoted Dr. Weber on DAFOH’s mission: “The organization’s focus is repeatedly on China – especially on the persecution of minorities such as the Uyghurs or members of the Falun Gong movement – a spiritual movement from China that combines meditation and gentle physical exercises with moral teachings based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.”

The article continued, “For years, there have been serious allegations against China of misusing members of minority groups as sources for organs. UN experts stated in 2021 that they had ‘credible information’ on this – evidence that they classify as ‘extremely alarming.’ The International Society for Human Rights has also repeatedly condemned organ harvesting in China and points out that the origin of tens of thousands of ‘donor’ organs is completely unclear.

“Our research shows that approximately one person is killed every 30 minutes in China for organ harvesting,” Andreas Weber said. “However, those affected are not only followers of the Falun Gong movement, which has been banned and persecuted in China since 1999, but also Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims, and Christians.” The organs of the spiritual group Falun Gong are considered particularly ‘pure,’ as the movement is known for leading a particularly healthy lifestyle.

Dr. Weber emphasizes that illegal organ harvesting does not only occur in China. “But there, it’s state-organized – elsewhere, it [the organ harvesting network] is more a matter of mafia-like structures,” he explains.

The article mentioned the Falun Gong Protection Act, passed in the U.S. House of Representatives and proposed in the U.S. Senate. Dr. Weber said, “This bill, supported by DAFOH, condemns the systematic persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese Communist Party and would, among other things, require the U.S. government to provide comprehensive reports on China’s organ harvesting policies.”

Dr. Weber believes that Germany and Europe also have a responsibility. “There are still collaborations between German transplant centers and Chinese institutions,” he said. For him, it is clear: this cooperation must end until it is independently proven that state-sponsored organ abuse in China has ceased.

DAFOH calls for legal regulations to prevent European patients from participating in “transplant tourism” to China.

“Even for economic interests, we are selling our souls to China and ignoring the fact that people are dying because of it. This imbalance is appalling,” said Dr. Weber. The author of the article emphasized this statement in a prominent position in the article.

“We must raise awareness of these crimes in society to prevent organ buyers from unknowingly becoming accomplices,” Dr. Weber said.