'Blood slave' kidnapped by Chinese gang in Cambodia and drained for months
He was threatened with organ harvesting if he could not provide blood
A Chinese man was held hostage and used as a "blood slave" in Cambodia after he responded to a fake job advertisement in China.
Beijing Youth Daily reported that the victim was a 31-year-old man from eastern Jiangsu province named Li Ya Ming.
According to the South China Morning Post, Mr Li had worked as a security guard in Shenzhen and Beijing before being lured to the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in southern China by a fake job advertisement some time in August 2021.
Once there he was abducted by a gang who took him to the China-Vietnam border and forced him to cross at gunpoint.
He was first taken to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and then to Sihanoukville in Cambodia by ship. He was then sold to another gang running an online fraud company for US$18,500.
According to Mr Li, he refused to participate in a fraud scheme run by the gang, and after they found out he was an orphan and would not fetch a ransom, they used him as a “blood slave”.
Mr Li said one of the gang members threatened him by saying that if they could not take blood from his body, he would be sold to organ harvesters. He said gang members often used electric prods to beat him and other captives.
He saw at least seven other men detained in a large room, but said the other men didn’t have their blood taken as much as he did because his blood is type O, a universal blood type.
According to Cambodia-based Chinese-language newspaper Asia Pacific Times, Mr Li had 800ml of blood taken from him every month since August last year. The blood was most likely sold to private buyers online, reported the paper.
As a result of the ordeal, his arms are covered with bruises and marks from needles. So much blood had been drained from Mr Li that on the last occasion, the nurse had to draw blood from his head after the veins in his arms failed to yield sufficient blood.
Guidelines for safely donating blood recommend no more than 500ml at the most per donation, and while the fluid replaces itself within up to 48 hours, it can take months for red blood cells to fully replenish themselves.
Mr Li said a good samaritan from the online scam operation rescued him from the premises before depositing him at a hospital in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.
When he was admitted to hospital on February 12, Mr Li was on the verge of death with multiple organ failures, the paper’s report said.
He is now in stable condition and receiving ongoing medical treatment.
Mr Li told Beijing Youth Daily that his organs would have been sold had he not managed to escape.
The Chinese embassy in Cambodia said on its website on Wednesday that it has urged Cambodian police to prioritise the case.
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