ORGAN HARVESTING: At a news conference in the capital, Ethan Gutmann answered ‘yes’ when asked whether he thought Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je was a liar
Taipei Times
Date: Oct 03, 2018
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) election campaign office yesterday said baseless
accusations should not be made for electoral gains and asked US author Ethan Gutmann to explain why he changed his attitude about accusations that Ko was involved in organ harvesting in China.
The office made the remarks after a news conference in Taipei yesterday, when Gutmann answered questions about his 2014 book The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China’s Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem in which Ko was one of the interviewees.
Wu Hsiang-hui (吳祥輝), a political pundit and owner of Butterfly Orchid Cultural Creativity who plans to publish a Chinese-language version of the book, on Sept. 3 took out a full-page ad in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) featuring excerpts from the book and claimed that Ko knew that many organs transplanted in China came from Falun Gong members.
Ko the same day said that Gutmann had already clarified in a written statement in 2014 that Ko was not acting as an “organ broker” or was in any way involved with purchasing organs. [FULL STORY]