Forced organ harvesting in China explained
Leaked Chinese documents have exposed Xi Jinping for personally approving a campaign of organ harvesting targeted against a banned spiritualist movement.
According to whistleblowers, the Chinese president instructed senior officials to step up efforts to suppress Falun Gong, spiritual movement combining meditation, traditional Chinese exercises, and teachings focused on truth, compassion, and forbearance.
The group has faced severe persecution by China since the late 1990s, with Mr Xi blasting previous attempts to suppress the movement as “too conservative, too traditional” and saying they “lacked creativity and lacked innovation”.
The directives included influencing public opinion and deploying legal warfare to undermine the group.
Professor Yuan Hongbing, a Chinese democracy activist and legal scholar based in Australia, cited sources in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), including a member of a prominent party family opposed to Mr Xi’s rule and an insider within the party ranks.
Mr Yuan claimed the CCP’s Political and Legal Affairs Commission, with the Ministry of National Security taking a central role, has been tasked with executing the crackdown.
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Xi Jinping and practitioners of Falun Gong (Image: Wiki Commons/Falun Gong)
Documents leaked to Mr Yuan suggest efforts to manipulate Western media, recruit influential figures, and use disinformation to turn public opinion against Falun Gong.
One such document, from 2021, reportedly details the appointment of a “director of the North American Office for Combating Falun Gong” and the elevation of its status within the CCP hierarchy.
The campaign, described as “escalating” by those familiar with it, has coincided with increasing harassment and threats directed at Falun Gong practitioners abroad, particularly in the US and Europe.
There have been reports of bomb and death threats, legal harassment, and intimidation attempts aimed at prominent Falun Gong-affiliated organisations.
Among those targeted is Shen Yun Performing Arts, a US-based classical Chinese dance company associated with Falun Gong. The group’s tour buses have had tyres slashed, its headquarters in New York has been subject to threats, and students at its affiliated academy have faced extortion attempts.
Reports indicate that legal cases have been lodged against Shen Yun in an apparent attempt to drain its resources and damage its reputation. One lawsuit, dismissed last year due to lack of evidence, was filed by an American businessman with longstanding ties to China.
Meanwhile, authorities in the US have prosecuted two Chinese nationals for attempting to bribe US tax officials in an effort to revoke Shen Yun’s tax-exempt status.
One of the individuals, John Chen, reportedly boasted to a fellow inmate that he was receiving $50,000 per month from the CCP’s notorious 610 Office, an agency dedicated to eradicating Falun Gong.
Professor Yuan Hongbing (Image: Professor Yuan Hongbing)
The intimidation campaign has also targeted individuals speaking out against forced organ harvesting, an atrocity long linked to China’s repression of Falun Gong. One of the most high-profile cases involves Cheng Peiming, a survivor of organ harvesting who has publicly recounted his ordeal.
Mr Cheng, who claims parts of his liver and lung were removed without his consent, has faced threats to his safety, including a reported break-in at his New York home last November. Leaked information suggests Chinese security services have discussed plans to “kill him directly and make it look like a suicide”.
In the UK, concerns about transnational repression have prompted a parliamentary inquiry.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights, chaired by MP Joanna Cherry, is gathering evidence on the extent to which foreign governments, including China, are targeting individuals on British soil.
Former security minister Tom Tugendhat has also warned about the dangers of foreign influence and coercion.
John Chen, pictured meeting Xi Jinping (Image: ETAC)
Across the Atlantic, momentum is building in Washington to address China’s human rights abuses.
In July last year, the Falun Gong Protection Act was introduced in the US Senate, following its passage in the House of Representatives. The Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act, first passed by the House in 2023, has also gained bipartisan support in the Senate.
China has long denied allegations of forced organ harvesting and persecution of Falun Gong, dismissing them as propaganda. However, mounting evidence, including witness testimonies, leaked documents, and independent investigations, has painted a different picture.
Mr Yuan has urged Western governments to take the revelations seriously, warning that the CCP’s transnational repression is expanding.
He told Express.co.uk: “There are a number of circumstances behind Xi Jinping’s plans to crackdown on Falun Gong overseas. The first is that the tyrannical CCP, acting as a political mafia group, has committed a series of unforgivable crimes against humanity against different nations on the East Asia continent.
“The second is that after Xi Jinping came to power, he implemented a global expansion of communist totalitarianism. It’s already constituted a threat to the whole of human society, a serious threat to the free, democratic way of life.
A scene from a Shen Yun performance (Image: Falun Gong)
“The third is Falun Gong. The CCP’s suppression of Falun Gong is in the 21st century, one of the worst human rights disasters of all time, including the CCP’s new round of suppression of Falun Gong overseas – especially the lawfare against Falun Gong and the public opinion warfare.”
He explained: “We must see this basic fact, which is, the media that Falun Gong practitioners operate now, and the various kinds of cultural endeavours they work on, including Shen Yun Performing Arts, are not media in the usual sense, nor are they cultural events in the usual sense.
“They’re an integral part of a great human rights movement in the 21st century whereby mankind is fighting for freedom and democracy, fighting against the tyranny of the CCP and its bloody persecution.
“I hope that through our revelation of the conspiracy of the CCP tyranny, we can make the international community more aware of the fact that the existence of the CCP is a direct threat to the cause of freedom and democracy for the whole of mankind.”