Experts Testify on Chinese Organ Harvesting

By | 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 5 (C-Fam) The Congressional Executive Commission on China held a hearing last month, calling attention to charges of illegal organ trafficking in China.

Multiple witnesses attested to these gruesome charges and called out the UN for not doing enough to stop what would be human rights abuses. They are looking to the U.S. for initiative and leadership as “the only country in the world that can do this,” Ambassador Sam Brownback said.

For years, reports of forced organ harvesting in China were dismissed as fringe allegations. However, increasing testimony from survivors, researchers, medical experts, and U.S. policymakers points to what may be a shocking reality: that an organ trafficking system has been built upon religious persecution and the exploitation of prisoners.

The situation is “worse than what we think,” said Jan Jekielek, Senior Editor of The Epoch Times.

Witnesses further charge that the UN has remained reluctant to confront China in a meaningful way. Jekielek said that “institutions are terribly uninterested.”

International law aims to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking and transnational crimes such as illegal organ harvesting. The Palermo Protocol explicitly includes “the removal of organs” within its definition of trafficking. Despite this, witnesses warned that China’s organ trafficking industry relies on coercion and the dehumanization of religious and ethnic minorities, especially Uyghurs and Falun Gong members.

The allegations themselves have been staggering over the last few years. UN human rights experts in a 2021 press release said, “We are deeply concerned by reports of discriminatory treatment of the prisoners or detainees based on their ethnicity and religion or belief.”

Researchers such as Ethan Gutmann pointed to evidence of secret detention systems, medical screening programs targeting vulnerable populations, and transplant wait times that appear impossible under a fully voluntary donation system. Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) described the practice as “murder masquerading as medicine.”

As witnesses explained, China has become deeply embedded within the modern UN system through financial leverage, institutional influence, and strategic partnerships. Brownback warned that the “UN is so infiltrated by the CCP” that even if the UN wanted to address this, it couldn’t. The result is an international system increasingly unwilling to challenge one of what could be among the most serious human rights abuses of the 21st century.

China, meanwhile, continues to claim that its transplant system complies with international standards. The UN’s incredibly uncooperative response is especially troubling given that international law already recognizes organ removal conducted through coercion as a form of human trafficking.

Witnesses called for stronger action from the U.S., including passage of H.R. 1503 – The Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act. They aim for greater scrutiny of institutions connected to China’s transplant industry, sanctions on those involved in forced organ harvesting, and greater freedoms for Chinese people. “This is not leadership; it’s suffocation,” Brownback said.

Advocates say that confronting forced organ harvesting in China is a test of whether the international community is willing to defend human dignity when doing so carries political costs. If the UN remains unwilling to act, the burden will increasingly fall on democratic nations like the U.S. to expose these abuses.

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