President Clinton was urged by the US Congress yesterday to express concern to visiting President Jiang over China's sale of the organs of executed prisoners.
Senator Connie Mack wrote to Mr Clinton calling on him to raise the administration's concern over 'this disturbing practice' directly with Mr Jiang during the October 29 summit.
Meanwhile, two members of the House of Representatives wrote to Attorney-General Janet Reno seeking a federal investigation into whether Chinese citizens broke US laws by offering organs for transplant to American patients.
The issue has arisen following an ABC news report last week, in which an undercover camera crew exposed a Chinese husband and wife team who were advertising in US newspapers for prospective patients for kidney transplants at a cost of US$30,000 (HK$232,000).
The report also showed classified military footage of Chinese prisoners being executed, and said their kidneys and other organs were expressly harvested for sale to wealthy patients.
'The practice of using prisoners' organs violates every conceivable standard of human rights and offends our most sacred conception of human decency,' Senator Mack wrote to Mr Clinton. 'I appeal to you in the strongest possible terms to investigate the accusations uncovered by ABC prior to the summit, and address this issue with President Jiang.' In their letter, Congressmen Frank Wolf and Linda Smith told Ms Reno that if ABC's report was true, 'such barbarity is a grave indictment of the Government of China'.
