Prosecutors in northern China have charged dozens of suspects in a decade-long scheme in which corpses marked for cremation were instead sold to one of the country's largest biomaterial firms, a company with ties to the state.Owners and operators of Shanxi Osteorad Biomaterial Co. and Sichuan Hengpu Technology Co. are accused of receiving more than 4,000 cadavers via illegal means, allowing the former to turn over nearly $53 million in revenue from 2015-2023.
Shanxi Osteorad was accused of forging donor agreements to create allogeneic bone implant material used to treat Chinese patients. Its staff also mistreated cadavers, prosecutors alleged.In China, the biomedical devices market is overseen by the National Medical Products Administration. The funeral industry falls under the Civil Affairs Ministry. Newsweek reached out to both for comment.Chinese authorities have for years encouraged small burials, sea burials or cremations to save land.