Chinese crime ring found to have stolen 4,000 dead bodies in massive bone graft scandal

A Chinese criminal network reportedly stole over 4,000 corpses from crematoriums and medical facilities to extract their bones for dental grafts. Dozens of people have been accused by prosecutors in northern China in connection with the decadent long conspiracy that found bodies intended for cremation instead sold to a state-affiliated biomaterials company, one of the biggest in the nation, as reported by the South China Morning Post. A prominent criminal attorney shared information of the case on social media on 8th August, sparking public outrage.

The authorities in Taiyuan, the capital of the northern province of Shanxi, are looking into claims that the bones have been used to create allogeneic bone transplants, which are usually produced from bones taken during surgery, according to Yi Shenghua, president of the law company Beijing Brave Lawyer. Sichuan Hengpu Technology Co. and Shanxi Osteorad Biomaterial Co.’s owners and operators are charged with obtaining approximately 4,000 cadavers through unethical ways, which enabled the former to earn up to $53 million in profits between 2015 and 2023.

Established in 1999, Shanxi Osteorad was a division of the China Institute for Radiation Protection in Taiyuan, which is a part of the Beijing-based state-owned China National Nuclear Corp. It is one of the biggest suppliers of bone substitutes and grafts in the nation, with a market estimated to be valued at half a billion dollars by the end of the decade. The maker of medical devices, Sichuan Hengpu, is also owned by its largest shareholder.

According to a leaked May indictment by the Taiyuan People’s Procuratorate in Shanxi province, the corpse trafficking covered at least seven provinces and nearly a dozen localities, where dead bodies were either transferred, dissected, stored, or turned into material devices for bone-grafting procedures . According to a representative for the Taiyuan municipal procuratorate, prosecutors are probing whether an illegal group was “stealing and reselling corpses for profit.” A string of arrests by anti-corruption agents has put the state-run funeral business in the public eye.

The evidence, tagged as “prosecution opinion,” was sent to Yi by an “insider” and was “authentic,” he told the Shanghai-based news portal, The Paper. According to his social media post, a business called Shanxi Aorui Biomaterials is accused of purchasing dead bodies and limbs from the provinces of Shandong, Guangxi and Sichuan without authorization and using them to make bone transplants. He added that the company made 380 million yuan (US$53 million) during this time, primarily from the sale of the bones used in dental grafts. Yi’s paperwork reveals that the police confiscated over 18 tons of bones in addition to over 34,000 semi-completed and finished goods.

The general manager of the company, a suspect with the surname Su, reportedly admitted to the authorities that he had stolen over 4,000 human remains from cemeteries in Yunnan, Chongqing, Guizhou and Sichuan. According to the report, the remains were roughly dissected by the personnel at crematoriums in Shuifu city, Guizhou’s Shiqian county, Chongqing’s Banan district, and Sichuan’s Daying county in order to send them to Su’s company for additional processing. At least 75 people are suspected in the case, including shareholders, doctors and funeral home administrators. Prosecutors informed the Shanghai news site The Paper that the extensive probe was still ongoing.

Allegations were made against Shanxi Osteorad for manipulating donor contracts in order to provide allogeneic bone implant material for Chinese patients. Prosecutors reported that its employees mistreated cadavers as well. The National Medical Products Administration is in charge of the biomedical devices market in China. The Ministry of Civil Affairs is in charge of the funeral industry.

For many years, in an effort to conserve land, Chinese authorities have promoted cremations, little funerals and graves at sea. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, families were unable to obtain customary funeral ceremonies, which led to an increase in cremations. However, the indictment asserted that four funeral homes in the Chongqing municipality and the southwestern provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan took money from relatives for cremation services before selling the bodies to two hospitals for storage and dissection. Some family members, according to the prosecution, paid for the cremation services but did not want to take the ashes home. Other times, cadavers that had not been chosen were chosen instead.

At least 450 bodies were acquired by a staff member at Guilin Medical University’s anatomy department from three of the funeral businesses listed in the complaint. After purchasing the bodies at $125 apiece, the employee sold more than 300 of them to Shanxi Osteorad for $1,400 apiece. At least ten bodies were allegedly processed and sold to Shanxi Osteorad for between $1,400 and $3,000 each by a transplant surgeon at the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University in the eastern Shandong province of China.

Seventy-five more people were reportedly apprehended throughout the investigation, according to the documents. It is believed that cremation employees dismember victims in order to sell Yi the bones. The investigation is also looking into allegations that the company was illegally soldered corpses by the liver center at Qingdao University Hospital in Shandong. The records mentioned the director of the liver center, Li Baoxing, as a suspect.

The director has previously received numerous awards from the government for his contributions to medicine, and the State Council named him one of China’s “Model Workers” in 2005, along with hundreds of other individuals. The Guangxi region’s Guilin civil affairs bureau informed The Paper that it was digging into allegations that three funeral businesses and a medical college sold bodies to a criminal outfit.

The scandal was brought to the attention of authorities in September 2023, as reported by The Paper, when the Guilin teaching hospital’s faculty member’s irregular earnings were subject to inquiry by China’s National Audit Office. According to the report, Chinese authorities confiscated 29 cars, 16 houses and more than 34,000 biomaterial products in addition to more than 18 tons of semi-finished goods. Every suspect allegedly confirmed their involvement.

Patients who lack adequate bone density for grafts can receive allogeneic grafts, however, the bone is typically harvested from willing patients undergoing procedures like hip replacements. Bone grafting is a medical industry procedure used to treat serious fractures. Although bone tissue can be taken directly from the patient (an autograft), due to potential risks, it is usually taken from cadavers (an allograft) under close regulatory supervision and with donor agreement.