(Minghui.org) Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas was interviewed by a well-known host of ABC Radio Brisbane on October 22, 2025. Mr. Matas talked about his investigation into the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting. He reminded Australians involved in organ transplants to pay attention to the issue and he called on Australia to pass legislation to help stop the CCP’s atrocities against humanity.

During his visit to Australia Mr. Matas will participate in a roundtable discussion at Parliament House. As one of the keynote speakers, he will discuss the threat posed to Australian society by the CCP’s transnational repression of Falun Gong. Falun Gong practitioners from across Australia will hold a three-day petition and truth-clarification event in Canberra, and Mr. Matas is scheduled to speak.

Mr. Matas talks about the CCP’s forced organ harvesting in an interview with Sky News Australia in June 2024. (Screenshot)

The CCP’s Forced Organ Harvesting Is Ongoing

Mr. Matas told Steve Austin, host of ABC Radio Brisbane, that multiple independent studies and reports from international organizations and media confirmed the CCP’s continues to carry out forced organ harvesting from Faun Gong practitioners since it was revealed in 2006, and these human rights violations continue.

“There was a journalist, Ethan Gutmann, who wrote a book on this issue called The Slaughter in 2014. There was a China Tribunal that was set up that produced a report on this subject in 2020. There’s a joint claim or appeal from 12 United Nations Human Rights Rapporteurs in 2021,” Mr. Matas said.

The China Tribunal issued a verdict in 2020 that the CCP carries out forced organ harvesting, mainly from Falun Gong practitioners.

The CCP regime claimed a voluntary donation system started in China in 2015 and it stopped using death-row inmates for organs. Mr. Matas referred to multiple investigative reports that the actual donation number is extremely low, “Because there’s a cultural history that you’re supposed to be buried whole within China. And as a result, donations aren’t really an explanation for the volumes that China is generating.”

In June 2016, Mr. Matas, David Kilgour, and Ethan Gutmann issued an updated report, Bloody Harvest/The Slaughter: An Update, which included data from 15 hospitals in China, including Shanghai Renji Hospital, indicating that the number of transplants was ten-fold higher than the official number.

Mr. Matas said the Renji Hospital in Shanghai listed the source of organs was from the military, but they actually came from prisoners of conscience.

During the interview the host Steve Austin mentioned footage from the Beijing Military Parade on September 3, 2025, which was broadcast globally during which Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed “organ transplants” and “scientific life extension” on camera.

In the video, which was broadcast live by Chinese state media, Xi Jinping said, “Some predict that human life expectancy could reach 150 years this century.” Putin, speaking through an interpreter, stated that organ transplants could allow humans to “live younger and younger, perhaps even achieve immortality.”

Mr. Matas said, “This illustrates the problem with authoritarian systems—they don’t accept criticism, lack self-reflection, and show no concern for the feelings of ordinary people who raise questions.”

It also shows they are fully aware that within such a system, organs can be “procured on demand,” especially for those in high positions or wealthy individuals with connections. They are so accustomed to this that they see nothing wrong with discussing it publicly.

He stressed that the Chinese authorities have so far failed to allow external scrutiny or transparent oversight, which violates the World Health Organization (WHO) principles of “traceability, transparency, and openness to scrutiny” in organ transplantation. It’s reasonable to infer that the CCP’s forced organ harvesting is still ongoing.

Calling on Australia to Enact Legislation Against Forced Organ Harvesting

Mr. Matas said some countries took action regarding the CCP’s forced organ harvesting. Canada and the UK enacted legislation banning citizens to participate in cross border organ transplantation. He mentioned that the UK passed an amendment to the Human Tissue Act in 2022 and enacted a regulation in 2024 requiring transplant nurses to report to the government their patients who were involved in transplant tourism.

In addition, Europe has a treaty: the Council of Europe Convention Against Trafficking in Human Organs, and 15 countries ratified it.

During his trip to Australia, Mr. Matas attended the Transplant Nurses Association’s annual conference, held in Brisbane on October 23 and 24. He took the opportunity to brief the medical community on the 2018 Australian Parliamentary report, Compassion, Not Commerce: An Inquiry into Human Organ Trafficking and Organ Transplant Tourism. He also urged Australia to follow the lead of the UK in enacting legislation to collect information on patients participating in overseas organ transplant tourism.

The report stated that there is ample evidence that CCP has, in the past, used organs from executed prisoners without their consent. There is also evidence that China’s coercive power and human rights violations continue and may even be worsening.

In August 2024, the Australian Senate passed a new bill aimed at curbing the illegal organ trade—the Migration Amendment (Overseas Organ Transplant Disclosure and Other Measures) Bill 2024. The new bill requires all persons entering Australia to disclose whether they have received an organ transplant outside Australia in the past five years when completing a passenger declaration card. Those who have received an organ transplant must disclose the name of the medical institution that performed it, as well as the city and country where the institution is located.

The bill was first introduced and completed its first reading in the Australian House of Representatives on August 21, 2024, but automatically lapsed upon the dissolution of Parliament on March 28, 2025, two months before the general election.

Mr. Matas said that Australia has no controls on patients traveling abroad for organ transplants, and no reporting requirements upon entry. This allows wealthy Australians to travel abroad for transplant tourism and purchase organs without incurring legal liability. He added that while transplant patients require anti-rejection medication, the principle of doctor-patient confidentiality makes it difficult for relevant information to be disclosed in the absence of clear laws or policies.

Experiencing the CCP’s Transnational Repression

Mr. Matas will participate in a roundtable discussion at the Australian Parliament House this week to explore the threat posed by the CCP’s infiltration and transnational suppression of Falun Gong to Australian democracy.

During the interview he told Steve Austin that for years, the CCP has not only denied the persecution and organ harvesting, but has also employed various means overseas to suppress the truth from spreading, “They do it in a lot of different ways. Sometimes it’s just pressuring institutions. This is not my first visit to Australia and in the past I’ve had venues cancel after bookings have been made. They don’t say the Communist Party asked them to do it. They give some other reason but the reasons aren’t very credible. In addition, Shen Yun Performing Arts received bomb threats around the world for their performances.”

In addition to the CCP’s harassment, intimidation, and surveillance of citizens overseas, Mr. Matas said, “[Revoking venue permits for events or threatening theaters to cancel Shen Yun performances] is another form of transnational repression.”

As one of the keynote speakers Mr. Matas will address the roundtable with two other experts, Falun Gong practitioners, who personally experienced the CCP’s persecution, and victims of the CCP’s transnational repression, the threats posed by the CCP’s infiltration and interference to diverse communities, institutions, and society.