China's Ministry of Health has issued a statement highlighting the country's new rules on organ transplants. It says that foreign citizens can only go to China for transplant surgery with the health ministry's approval. In recent years China has been severely criticised for allowing the organs of executed prisoners to be sold to foreign patients. Human rights groups estimate that the Chinese authorities execute thousands of prisoners every year. But China's ruling Communist Party does not give definite figures. China issued new regulations governing human organ transplants in May. But now the Ministry of Health has decided to highlight the new rules. The statement issued on Wednesday stresses that Chinese citizens will be given priority in the supply of human organs. What is more, Chinese doctors are banned from travelling abroad to perform transplant surgery. The ministry says that doctors caught performing illegal transplants will face severe punishment. The Communist Party will hope that these new rules go some way towards showing the world that it is taking steps to improve its human rights record, according to the BBC correspondent in Beijing, James Reynolds. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6269166.stm
