Rep. Smith warns Congress: China’s organ harvesting operation is “execution by extraction”
The hearing revealed chilling testimony alleging prisoners in Communist China were used as a living organ bank, as Smith pushed Congress to crack down on the global organ trafficking trade.
Washington, D.C - Co-Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) Congressman Chris Smith chaired a hearing on Thursday examining allegations of forced organ harvesting and illegal organ trafficking tied to the Chinese Communist Party. The hearing, titled “A Market Built on Victims: Stopping Illegal Organ Trafficking in China and Beyond,” focused on testimony from former detainees, human rights advocates, and experts who described what Smith called “one of the most barbaric human rights atrocities of our time.”
In his opening statement, Smith warned that forced organ harvesting has evolved into a global black market fueled by “coercion, poverty, corruption, secrecy, and demand,” with China at the center of many of the allegations. He described the practice as “murder masquerading as medicine” and argued that political prisoners, religious minorities, and vulnerable detainees have allegedly been turned into “inventory” for organ transplants.
Smith noted that he first chaired a congressional hearing on forced organ harvesting on June 18, 1996, adding that the evidence gathered over the last three decades has become “more disturbing, more detailed, and more compelling.” He cited longstanding allegations involving Falun Gong practitioners, peaceful men and women targeted by the Chinese Communist Party for eradication, as well as Uyghur Muslims, Christians, Tibetans, and death row inmates. He also referenced previous findings from the China Tribunal and testimony describing “military hospitals, impossibly short wait times, organs available on demand, and a transplant system that cannot withstand scrutiny.”
The hearing also featured testimony from witnesses who claimed to have firsthand knowledge of China’s prison and detention systems. Smith referenced accounts involving coerced consent forms, prisoners allegedly taken into surgery and never returning, and unconscious detainees reportedly transported into operating rooms under armed supervision.
“That is not voluntary donation,” Smith said. “That is execution by organ extraction.”
Smith additionally criticized the World Health Organization for accepting Beijing’s claims that its transplant system now complies with international standards, arguing international institutions have failed to adequately investigate the allegations.
A major focus of the hearing was Smith’s Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025, legislation that passed the House by a 406-1 vote. The bill would criminalize participation in forced organ trafficking, impose sanctions, deny visas to offenders, and create penalties of up to 20 years in prison and fines reaching $1 million for knowingly facilitating coerced organ transplants. Smith urged the Senate to act on the legislation, warning that “every day without consequences is another day perpetrators operate in the shadows.”
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