October 30, 1997
Mr. Timothy Howe
---- -------- -----
Milpitas, California 95035
Dear Mr. Howe:
Thank you for your letter concerning human rights abuses in
China.
I am pleased to look into this matter for you, and I have
asked the Department of State to consider and comment on the
issues you have raised. As soon as I have a response, I will be
back in touch with you.
In the meantime, thanks again for contacting my office. I
hope that I can be of assistance.
With warmest personal regards.
Sincerely yours,
Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator
DF:mbmRecently, I received the promised reply, which is below.
January 5, 1998
Mr. Timothy Howe
---- -------- ---
Milpitas, California 95035
Dear Mr. Howe:
As I advised you in an earlier letter, I referred your
letter to the Department of State. I have enclosed their
response.
Thank you again for contacting my office. I hope that this
material is helpful and that the information outlined in it will
clarify the situation for you. If you have further questions
regarding this, or if there is some way I can assist you in the
future on other matters, please do not hesitate to contact one of
my offices:
San Francisco: (415) 536-6868
Los Angeles: (310) 914-7300
San Diego: (619) 231-9712
Fresno: (209) 485-7430
Washington, D.C.: (202) 224-3841
With warmest personal regards and best wishes for the
holiday season.
Sincerely yours,
Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator
DF:mbm
The above letter included the following letter from the Department of State:
Dear Senator Feinstein:
Thank you for your October 30 letter, in which you forwarded
various constituent inquiries regarding several allegations with
respect to the sale of the organs of executed convicts in China.
I would like to underscore that the idea of a trade in body parts
is repugnant, and the charge that prisoners would be executed to
facilitate such a trade is even more abhorrent. The allegations
are deeply troubling and, if proved to be true, would require us
to press the Chinese government for revision of its policy.
We asked the Chinese Embassy in Washington on October 22 for
an authoritative statement of Chinese Government policy regarding
the use of organs from executed prisoners, and our Embassy
contacted the Chinese government in Beijing on October 23 to make
the same request. In both cases we pressed the Chinese for a
statement of Chinese policy as well as specific information about
the allegations. We will continue our efforts to verify whether
there is any basis in fact for these allegations that executions
for organs take place, that transplants are a commodity to be
traded, or that organs are taken without consent.
To date, the authoratative response that we have from the
Chinese is an unequivocal denial of the allegations. Chinese
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Press Spokesman Shen Goufang
stated publicly on October 22 that the allegations were untrue.
The Chinese response through governmental channels has been that
Shen's October 22 statement is authoritative.
Despite these assurances, we do not consider the matter
closed. One of the allegations made in the program, "PrimeTime
Live," was that two individuals in the United States acted as
brokers to facilitate the trade in organs from executed convicts.
The Justice Department has referred the issue to the FBI for
investigation as to whether U.S. laws have been violated. We
will follow closely this investigation.
We hope the above information is helpful. Please let us
know if we can be of any further assistance.
Sincerely,
Barbara Larkin
Assistant Secretary
Legislative Affairs