China: Harvesting Skin of the Executed for Cosmetics Exports

The Blue State Conservatives ^ | 09/14/05 | USMC_Vet

[Brian Scott]

USMC_Vet from The Blue State Conservatives has exposed China in what can only be described as an amoral act of barbarism.

He begins...

The debate is endless.

Is China an economic partner or a strategic adversary with regards to America? Countless hours are dedicated to determining the nature of the relationship. Yet, at the end of the day, it should boil down to basic principle amidst all of the nuanced and persuasive arguments.

China, or more accurately it's Chinese Communist Party dictatorship and the environment it cultivates, is a Moral Adversary.

Exhibit 'A': Skin of Executed Prisoners Harvested for Cosmetics Exports

Read The Rest

Now tell everyone you know.

[adam_az]

China: Harvesting Skin of the Executed for Cosmetics Exports

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The debate is endless.

Is China an economic partner or a strategic adversary with regards to America? Countless hours are dedicated to determining the nature of the relationship. Yet, at the end of the day, it should boil down to basic principle amidst all of the nuanced and persuasive arguments.

China, or more accurately it's Chinese Communist Party dictatorship and the environment it cultivates, is a Moral Adversary.

Exhibit 'A': Skin of Executed Prisoners Harvested for Cosmetics Exports

A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an investigation by the Guardian has discovered.

Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company's products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is "traditional" and nothing to "make such a big fuss about".

But wait, there's more.

When formally approached by the Guardian, the agent denied the company was using skin harvested from executed prisoners. However, he had already admitted it was doing precisely this during a number of conversations with a researcher posing as a Hong Kong businessman. The Press Complaints Commission's code of practice permits subterfuge if there is no other means of investigating a matter of public interest.

The agent told the researcher: "A lot of the research is still carried out in the traditional manner using skin from the executed prisoner and aborted foetus." This material, he said, was being bought from "bio tech" companies based in the northern province of Heilongjiang, and was being developed elsewhere in China.

Not done yet...

For added measure and further solidifying the argument that China's CCP (and therfore China today) is a Moral Adversary:

Speaking from his office in northern China, he added: "The government has put some pressure on all the medical facilities to keep this type of work in low profile."

They know the act of harvesting human skin from killed prisoners and aborted fetuses is reprehensible. Hence the orders for silence.

One struggles to rid the images of lampshades from the skin of Jews in Nazi concentration camps after that chilling revelation about Chinese government's demand of silence. In the years since World War II, the images that define it are not of bombing runs, Panzer blitzes or even, arguably, the hallowed beaches of Normandy. The images that define World War II to this day are those of the prison camps, the gas chambers, and the piles of gold fillings.

Personally, the most powerful image for me was not of any of the above, but rather one of a simple looking lamp...made of the skin of an executed Jew. That image has remained powerfully ingrained in me since that damp, rainy rural Central Illinois day in junior high school.

The above image shows, in addition to the lamp that had the greatest personal impact, organs in containers and tattooed skin fancied more for covering frames than for covering the flesh of the human being on which it once grew. In Nazi Germany, and sprawled throughout Europe, Jews were sentenced to death en masse, their shattered bodies harvested of what was of use or value before being discarded.

The world stood repulsed. Sickened. Ashamed.

Today, in China, those sentenced to death by courts or aborted in clinics are similarly harvested. In this instance, it is for their skin's value in, of all things, the Chinese cosmetics industry.

While no opponent of the death penalty for extreme crimes such as child molestation, it must be stated plainly that death can have no incentive, beyond justice, such as this.

Can there be any question that the Chinese CCP is itself a reprehensible Moral Adversary?

Death must have no incentive beyond justice.

[neutronsgalore]

PING!

[Paleo Conservative]

A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an investigation by the Guardian has discovered.

I bet PETA is relieved. At least they aren't using animal parts.

[struggle]

Ah, if only Hayek was a live to see himself proved correct over and over.

[ModelBreaker]

I am very skeptical about this story. It is, after all, from a newspaper that regards George Galloway as a credible source. And it's so weird. I would wait for confirmation on this one before shouting it to the world. One would risk looking foolish, like the Guardian frequently does, otherwise.

[secretagent]

When formally approached by the Guardian, the agent denied the company was using skin harvested from executed prisoners. However, he had already admitted it was doing precisely this during a number of conversations with a researcher posing as a Hong Kong businessman.

A DNA test might settle the issue.

[Artemis Webb]

Everyone needs to be extra skeptical of something like this. On the surface it ranks right up there with Bat Boy and Clinton meeting Martians on the White House lawn.

[adam_az]

It wouldnt's surprise me at all.

example from googling (I know a placenta is not a fetus)

http://www.clii.com.cn/clii-en/qy68/01mc/qirixiange.htm

The punchy product-QIRIXIANG Ginseng Placenta Essence Facial Cream-is made by essence extracted from Chinese traditional beauty materials: ginseng and healthy human placenta. Ginseng can strengthen skin cells vigor, promote metabolism and restrain the creation of black pigment. Essence extracted from human placentas possesses affinity for human skin. It can effectively penetrate into skin cell structure, providing enough nutrients. The combining of two materials can keep skin smooth white, and resilience, reducing wrinkles and pigment spots and slowing the skin senility process. It can keep you beauty and young.


And of course there is already the notorious Chinese trade in human organs from executed prisoners...

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0118,baard,24344,1.html

[ModelBreaker]

I know the Chinese are amoral sob's. But the story is very very weird and it is from the Guardian. They are a paper that would gladly run a BatBoy story if they thought it would hurt the Iraq war effort.

The story posits that a western company in England thinks that selling collagen extracted from executed prisoners is a good way to make money--so it fits in with the Guardian's tabloid anti-capitalism. I have a hard time wrapping my mind around western executives that stupid. Sure, some are stupid. But THAT stupid?

I'm not saying the story is wrong. But I am saying that I would approach it very cautiously and wait for it to be confirmed by a source more credible than the Guardian.

Just because the Chinese are capable of such atrocities doesn't mean they are. In other words, I would be careful about accepting a story from a dubious source just because it fits your preconceived notions (however well based) about the Chinese government.

[Eastbound]

" . . . Ginseng Placenta Essence Facial Cream . . . "

I don't know about the Ginseng part, but I know they were selling Placenta-based beauty/health products in the U.S. as far back as 1985/86 ... Perhaps longer. The old pyramid sales program.

Someone tried to sell me on the plan before I knew what the product was made from. I think he used the phrase, 'placenta extract' when I questioned him about the ingredients in the product.

Then I asked him what were the chances of getting HIV or other diseases from using the product.

His mouth went agape and his eyes bugged out and he was speechless for about one minute. I suppose he was never asked that question before, nor thought to ask it himself.

He quit the organization within weeks for some reason. An aquaintance. True story.

[Gertie]

After reading the article and before reading the replies, I was sure I was going to have a total and complete, irreversible breakdown.

[DoughtyOne]

Our national moral standing rests at rock bottom, as we trade with China. This is a disgrace. How can we ask other nations to 'do the right thing' then trade with China as we have?

We should all hang our heads in shame for allowing this to transpire.

[Marie]

Here's another true story. A few years ago my neighbor's 2 year old went into full-blown puberty. She grew breasts, began her menses, everything. After months of serious tests and hospitalizations, it was found that the hair cream her mother was using in the girl's hair contained mare's placenta. She stopped using the cream and all of the symptoms either stopped or stopped progressing.

[TheCrusader]

"Our national moral standing rests at rock bottom, as we trade with China."

I agree 100%, and I've been saying this for years.

Trading with these communist pigs has not enhanced our economy, but has enhanced theirs as they continue to build and modernize a massive military machine. Our trade deficit with China is enormous, the whole idea makes no sense to me at all. Every piece of electronics and gadgetry we buy today is made in China, and it is truly junk.

If it's cheap labor our fearless leaders want, there's plenty of that in India, Sri Lanka, South America and elsewhere. Why China???????

[Brian Scott]

The Taipei Times has syndicated the Guardian article. (For whatever that means.) You can find it here Here is a fun fact for those of you that haven't read the entire Guardians article. (This info by no means verifies the story.)

What is it? Collagen is a major structural protein found in abundance in skin, bones, tendons and other connective tissue. Matted sheets of collagen give skin its toughness and by winding into molecular "cables", it adds strength to tendons.

[Brian Scott]

Need more evidence? Hows this for ya? The article is dated June 28, 2001.