Transplant surgeries could set record

China stopped using organs from executed prisoners on Jan 1 last year, when voluntary donations became the only legal source for transplants.

"Much corruption existed in the allocation of organs procured from executed prisoners," Huang said.

"The Chinese government has adopted a zero-tolerance attitude toward such behavior," he added.

To improve and better regulate procurement and allocation of organs, the Organ Procurement and Allocation Committee of the Chinese Hospital Association was established on Sunday.

The committee will "play a role of management and supervision over the sector and formulate related standards", Huang said.

Marti Manyalich, president of the International Society of Organ Donation and Procurement, said China has made great progress in promoting organ donations and transplants in the past few years.

The ratio of organ donors among Chinese, which is now more than 2 per million population, could increase tenfold in the next 10 years, which means China could nearly meet the demand for organ transplants, he added.

China can make quicker progress in organ donations and transplants by learning from some other countries, such as Spain, which has one of the world's top organ donation ratios, he said.

Like many other countries, China faces a severe shortage of organs, with about 300,000 people waiting for organ transplant surgeries each year, according to Xinhua News Agency.