People desperate for organ transplants often visit China now for surgery because waiting times for life-saving treatments are unusually short. Why? The work of The Epoch Times, led by reporter Eva Fu, exposes the ugly truth.
Ready-to-transplant organs are harvested "fresh" from people imprisoned for their spiritual beliefs, according to a survivor and a doctor previously involved in the practice.
Our news organization has worked to raise awareness about the horrific practice of forced organ harvesting—estimated to be a billion-dollar industry—with fact-based, in-depth reporting. We provide substantial evidence about how healthy organs are removed from people detained by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and sold.
Forced organ harvesting had been a well-kept, dirty secret. Then in 2006, whistleblowers told The Epoch Times that practitioners of Falun Gong in China had been killed for their organs. We began investigating relentlessly.
Falun Gong is a meditation practice that originated in northeastern China in 1992. It promotes the values of truthfulness, compassion, tolerance, and good health. The Chinese regime has been trying to eradicate the spiritual group since 1999.
After a yearlong investigation, the London-based China Tribunal concluded the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is taking place in China “on a significant scale.” Tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners living in China now face daily danger of imprisonment that could lead to having their organs removed and sold.
Our news organization will continue to expose these crimes against humanity until forced organ harvesting is nothing but a terrible memory.
Raising awareness is critical to bringing an end to forced organ harvesting. So we have published articles and video interviews illuminating the issue from a range of perspectives:
Reporter Eva Fu traveled to Boston and Washington to meet with lawmakers and human rights advocates involved in the cause.
She pored over testimonies from congressional and state hearings.
She reviewed written submissions to the China Tribunal.
She monitored events that addressed China’s organ harvesting.
She sought out people with knowledge of the issue.
Given the danger of speaking publicly on the topic, many with information have been unwilling to expose what they know. But one former doctor in a key Chinese military hospital told us of conversations in which an officer promised another official a “fresh” organ from a Falun Gong practitioner.
That doctor first spoke to The Epoch Times using a pseudonym to avoid retaliation from Beijing. He later agreed to use his real name, and we published his account in August 2023.
Falun Gong practitioners who have survived imprisonment for their faith in China describe heartbreaking mental trauma. We have taken special care to tell their stories in a way that keeps them—and their relatives still in China—safe. This challenge is exacerbated by the opacity of the Chinese system and its ongoing censorship efforts.
Meanwhile, even our U.S. lawmakers have faced pressure from the CCP to stand down in their fight to raise awareness of forced organ harvesting.
In speaking with Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), the chief sponsor of the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act, we found he'd been pressured by the Chinese consulate in Washington to withdraw his support of the bill.
Others described pressure tactics including threats of economic retaliation, censorship, and more. We’ve documented widespread intimidation against:
Our team continues to dig into this issue, determined to show how the CCP stifles speech on the issue and continues the vicious practice of killing for profit.
As they've been introduced to this alarming issue, readers have shown they care deeply about it.
They shared one of these articles about the CCP’s forced organ harvesting more than 4,000 times from our Epoch Times online editions.
The reach of the stories has spread across the globe. Our digital newspapers are translated into 23 languages for editions in 36 countries.
Additionally, these reports reached readers of our daily newspaper in Washington, D.C., and were sent across the United States to subscribers of our national weekly print edition.
The U.S. government has taken notice of our reporting, too.
The interview with the former Chinese military hospital doctor was cited in a U.S. Department of State human rights report in April 2024.
In June, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill called the Falun Gong Protection Act to push back on forced organ harvesting targeting Falun Gong practitioners.
Two days later, the State Department told The Epoch Times’ sister television network, NTD, that Beijing “should allow for independent and transparent investigations into the country’s organ transplantation system.”
Survivors of Chinese prisons and the Chinese doctor—all of whom shared their stories at great risk—have told us their hope is this: that more exposure of the truth about forced organ harvesting will result in protection for the people in China who are at risk of slaughter for profit.
