reuters.com
www.reuters.com

Reuters News on Friday withdrew a four-minute video containing an exchange between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussing the possibility that humans can live to 150 years old, after China state TV demanded its removal and withdrew the legal permission to use it.

The footage, which included the open mic exchange from the military parade in Beijing marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, was licensed by the China state television network, China Central Television (CCTV).

The clips were edited by Reuters into a four-minute video and distributed to more than 1,000 global media clients including major international news broadcasters and TV stations around the world. Other news agency licensees of CCTV also distributed edits of the footage.

Reuters removed the video from its website and issued a “kill” order to its clients on Friday after receiving a written request from CCTV’s lawyer. The letter said the news agency exceeded usage terms of its agreement. The letter further criticized Reuters “editorial treatment applied to this material,” but did not specify details.

Reuters said in a statement that it withdrew the videos because it no longer held the legal permission to publish this copyrighted material.

[…]

  • Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.orgOPEnglish
    241·
    7 days ago

    Putin and Xi discuss immortality, while forced transplants remain a problem in China

    […] activist groups contend that despite the adoption of new regulations, organ transplants from prisoners or members of certain ethnic groups will continue, and will certainly not put an end to transplant tourism in China.

    As recent as 2021, United Nations human rights experts expressed concern about reports of “organ harvesting” from specific groups, including Falun Gong practitioners, who have long been persecuted by Beijing, and members of ethnic and religious minorities, such as “Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims and Christians, in detention in China.”

    In a statement, UN rapporteurs reported that “experts said they have received credible information that detainees from ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities may be forcibly subjected to blood tests and organ examinations such as ultrasound and X-rays, without their informed consent; while other prisoners are not required to undergo such examinations. The results of the examinations are reportedly registered in a database of living organ sources that facilitates organ allocation.” […]

    Addition:

    Killing prisoners for transplants: Forced organ harvesting in China

    […] Organ transplantation is a life-saving therapy for millions of patients and one of the greatest successes of modern medicine. However, a limited supply of donor organs, paired with a massive demand for transplants, has fuelled the global organ trafficking industry which exploits poor, underprivileged and persecuted members of society as a source of organs to be purchased by wealthy transplant tourists.

    Although this practice occurs in many countries, the situation in China is particularly concerning. China is the only country in the world to have an industrial-scale organ trafficking practice that harvests organs from executed prisoners of conscience. This practice is known as forced organ harvesting.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
      88·
      7 days ago

      from specific groups, including Falun Gong practitioners

      :-/

      Falun Gong-aligned media push fake news about Democrats and Chinese communists

      Through 2020 and into the early life of the Biden administration, Epoch Times and NTD alike promoted conspiracy theories related to the QAnon movement, the supposedly compromising international ties of Hunter Biden, and even sold merchandise outlining half-forgotten conspiracy theories such as “Uranium One”, which held that Hillary Clinton, as US secretary of state, engineered the sale of uranium deposits to Russian interests in return for donations to the Clinton Foundation.

      While US rightwing outlets like One America News and Newsmax have profited by supplying the seemingly bottomless appetite among the rightwing grassroots for material that depicts American politics as a tangle of elite conspiracies, Carusone says it is a mistake to view the Falung Gong-aligned outlets as normal media companies.

      The principal goal of Epoch Times – now publishing in 36 countries under the supervision of a network of non-profits – is not to generate profit, he says, but to mount a long and broad “influence operation”. And the goal of that influence operation, in turn, is “to foment anti-CCP sentiment”.

      • Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.orgOPEnglish
        11·
        6 days ago

        @[email protected]

        There is ample evidence for forced organ harvesting in China. Despite new regulations introduced by Beijing in the mid-2010s, the rapid expansion of China’s transplant industry is very questionable, according to a scientific investigation by Robertson et al. The study also provides useful insights into this Chinese practice.

        The UN also said it “received credible information that detainees from ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities may be forcibly subjected to blood tests and organ examinations such as ultrasound and x-rays, without their informed consent […]”.

        “Forced organ harvesting in China appears to be targeting specific ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities held in detention, often without being explained the reasons for arrest or given arrest warrants, at different locations,” they said. “We are deeply concerned by reports of discriminatory treatment of the prisoners or detainees based on their ethnicity and religion or belief.

        Michael Nguyen, a researcher from the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics in California, discusses China’s organ donation system after it was officially established in 2013:

        Within a two-year period, China reported donations from 2766 individuals, with 7785 transplants performed in 2015. These dramatic increases in donors and transplantations seem implausible given the low rate of deceased organ donation (3.9 deceased donors per million people) and a low willingness to donate (47.45% of the general public). These findings prompted suspicions that unethical organ procurement continues to supply the ever-growing demand for organs.

        You’ll easily find more information on this issue form very reliable sources.

      • yucandu@lemmy.world
        72·
        7 days ago

        I’ve always wondered why Chinese ex-pats were so adamant at discrediting this minor cult I’ve never heard of.

        The people making the claims of organ harvesting are not solely Falun Gong themselves. They’re advocacy groups like End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC).

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
          46·
          6 days ago

          this minor cult I’ve never heard of.

          It’s not minor. Public estimates of the practice run as high as 70M at the peak of it’s popularity. Their leadership command billions in revenue, with significant real estate holdings both in the US and globally.

          It’s on par with Mormonism.

          The people making the claims of organ harvesting are not solely Falun Gong themselves.

          A lot of the allegations are recycled through right wing groups in the US.

          They’re advocacy groups like End Transplant Abuse in China

          Get into the organization’s members and you’re going to find a bunch of British and American anti-Communists. David Matas, for instance, is an outspoken Zionist. Arthur Waldron works directly for the American Enterprise Institute, an American right wing think tank, and co-signed an open letter to Donald Trump in support of the Trump Administration’s China policy. Businessman Nick Vetch is just some British billionaire self-storage tycoon.

          None of these folks are actual Chinese ex-pats.

          • yucandu@lemmy.world
            112·
            6 days ago

            See this is exactly how Chinese propaganda operates. They don’t attempt to address the actual allegations themselves, rather they try to discredit the people proposing them.

            I don’t care if the people who found out about organ harvesting are so-called “anti-Communists” if they’re right.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
              34·
              6 days ago

              They don’t attempt to address the actual allegations themselves

              If you want direct categorical rebuttals, you can go straight to the Chinese government itself, or any of the nonpartisan investigations that have failed to turn up actual evidence of facilities where these organ thefts are taking place.

              But at some point, there’s little to actually refute. The “proof” is a set of demographic data that implies China is doing too many organ transplants relative to their Western counterparts, combined with a handful of dubious testimonials from partisans making third hand accounts.

              It’s the same line of argument RFK Jr made, linking Tylenol to autism.

              I don’t care if the people who found out about organ harvesting are so-called “anti-Communists” if they’re right.

              And if they’re wrong?