A new bill that would sanction perpetrators of forced organ harvesting could create ripple effects for the Chinese and the American people resulting in a sea change, and perhaps even a free China, according to Jan Jekielek, author of “Killed to Order” and senior editor at The Epoch Times.
Jekielek’s new book, released March 17, tells the full story of how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) turned millions of people of faith into a living organ bank to fuels its industrial-scale organ harvesting program—and drew the West’s complicity.
Similar bills have been introduced before, first by then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), then by Cruz, but none made it through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for a floor vote. Multiple such bills have also been introduced in the House and, in the past two years, passed overwhelmingly.
“This is a very important piece of legislation. It sanctions individuals involved. It asks to assess whether what’s happening is an atrocity under the Elie Wiesel Act. That’s a very important designation. ... To have the U.S. government officially say that would be incredibly powerful,” Jekielek said, adding that it was encouraging to see bipartisan support in the new version of the Senate bill.
The heads of state discussed transplanting human organs “continuously,” with a goal of extending life to “150 years” or even reaching “immortality.”
To have the United States recognize in a statute that forced organ harvesting is happening under the CCP could break any illusions the Chinese people may have about their regime, Jekielek said.
“For the Chinese people to realize that their government—in effect, this Communist Party that in a sense is a parasite on the government itself—is running this horror show on the backs of innocent people ... it might even bring down the Communist Party,” he said.
A 2019 independent tribunal concluded that forced organ harvesting had taken place “on a significant scale” and that Falun Gong practitioners were the primary victims.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice centered on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. Introduced to the public in the early 1990s, it spread rapidly through word of mouth, with about one in 13 Chinese practicing Falun Gong by the end of the decade, according to state estimates.
By the early 2000s, as recounted in Jekielek’s book, reports began emerging of Falun Gong practitioners undergoing unexplained blood tests while illegally detained. Then, in 2006, evidence came to light that Falun Gong practitioners were being killed by the CCP for the purpose of selling their organs for profit.
Jekielek said that if the bill passes the Senate, it will align with the United States’ new efforts to break through authoritarian firewalls and give people access to information that may otherwise be censored by regimes.
“There also seems to be an element of facilitating that kind of freedom of speech and thought for people in regimes, and the Chinese regime is very brittle. Its economy is in very rough shape,” he said.
Jekielek noted that the economic downturn in China is already seeding unrest and could break down the pillars of the CCP’s rule.
“There’s been this unwritten pact between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people. ... To be rich is to be glorious—that was [former CCP leader Deng Xiaoping’s] statement, and the idea was ’stay out of politics or we’re going to crush you, but you can actually make a little money for yourself,'” he said. “That pact is now broken.”
Combined with the CCP’s internal struggles, as seen with top brass being removed, “it’s a very volatile reality for the regime,” Jekielek said.
“For the Chinese people to understand ... what their government is doing would be incredibly helpful to them, and perhaps have them find the will,” he stated.
“A free China would be an incredible boon to the world, and people have to make those decisions themselves.”
