An organ trafficking trial in Beijing has shed light on the country’s grisly black market in body parts. On trial is Liu Qiangsheng, who faces up to five years’ prison for working as a go-between for organ donors and recipients. Another man was tried for similar offences last month.

China banned organ transplants from living donors in 2007, with the exception of spouses, blood relatives and step or adopted family members. However, it was not until last year that the country launched a national system for coordinating organ donation after death. The system has not yet proved to be efficient. According to the country’s Health Ministry, almost 1.5 million people in China need organ transplants each year, but only around 10,000 are able to get one.

The two men on trial believe that they are being treated unfairly – that they were merely helping the sick and poor. “I believe I was helping people, not harming others,” defendant Liu Qiangsheng told the Procuratorial Daily. According to Liu, he started in the organ trafficking business in 2008, selling half of his own liver in order to pay for medical treatment for his father. A friend of the recipient was desperately in need of a kidney, and asked Liu to find him another organ donor. Liu told the Procuratorial Daily, “I saved the life of the person who received my liver. He was only in his 30s. I do not regret it.”

China Daily reported last year that transplants have increased due to middlemen specialised in faking documents that allow organs to be donated between strangers in the black market. The paper also states that the majority of organs used for transplantation are harvested from executed criminals.~ Reuters May 19