Spiritual Believers Around the World Resist Chinese Regime's Oppression

Welcome back. Tomorrow will mark the 25th anniversary of Communist China's brutal persecution against the spiritual practice Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa. Practitioners from around the world are marking the occasion by raising public awareness. NTD's Sam Wang has the story. With decades of hardships come decades of resilience. Just days away from July 20th, Falun Gong practitioners from across the globe have been commemorating this somber occasion. It was on this day 25 years ago, the Chinese Communist Party ordered a nationwide persecution against the spiritual practice, seeking to eradicate the tens of millions who live by the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. The State Department said it's an issue that demands action. We have seen the PRC take a number of steps over the past many years that we view as a crackdown on basic human rights. One, it is something that we will continue to raise with PRC officials directly, and two, we won't hesitate to take appropriate actions from the U.S. government, and you've seen us done so. With the persecution, our practitioners of Falun Gong should not be tolerated. Over the past week, Falun Gong practitioners have held rallies in different parts of the world to raise the public's awareness, from local towns and villages to large cities like Tokyo, Sydney, and Washington, D.C. But in China, the story is quite different. Authorities track practitioners and send them to labor camps. Some are left bedridden due to severe abuse and torture, and others have died in custody. State Department reports suggest an untold number of Falun Gong practitioners have had their organs harvested on demand to supply China's transplant industry. The persecution of Falun Gong is criminal. The arbitrary detention, torture, forced labor, propaganda, and organ harvesting associated with this campaign are not only violations of international human rights standards, but also constitutes criminal acts that demand global condemnation. Today, getting the truth out remains a top priority for Falun Gong practitioners. In many instances, their voices are being heard. In June, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Falun Gong Protection Act, a bill aimed at sanctioning foreign nationals who are complicit in China's state-sponsored organ harvesting. Despite facing adversity inside communist China, Falun Gong is now practiced by people from all walks of life in over 100 countries. Sam Wang, NTD News. For decades, the Chinese Communist Party has gotten away with the crime of stealing people's organs while they're still alive. Evidence continues to pour in, shedding light on this heinous crime. Medical communities right here in the U.S. may be complicit without even knowing it. Our next guest serves on the board of directors of Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting. Dr. Alejandro Santurian joins us now. Dr. Alejandro Santurian, thank you so much for joining us today. How does the transplant industry in China differ from the transplant industry in Western countries? Well, in Western countries, ethics has the highest priority, and informed consent is a cornerstone of medical ethics in the West. And what we're seeing in China is completely against these principles. I mean, there are unethical forms of organ harvesting worldwide. People have heard of the black market or organ trafficking, where people typically may sell a But what we're seeing in China is something completely different. It's a term our organization, our NGO, medical NGOs term, forced organ harvesting. It's the first time we've seen a state, a totalitarian state, literally killed on an industrial scale. What is the evidence for this happening? Well, there's so much evidence. The first evidence came out in 2006, of some whistleblowers. And since then, there's just been an accumulation of evidence over the years. The China Tribunal came to the conclusion that forced organ harvesting was happening in China beyond any reasonable doubt, and that farm-and-garden practitioners were the largest and primary victims, with some evidence that Christians, Tibetans, and now more recently, the Uyghurs have also likely been targeted. The first two independent investigators that looked into these abuses were David Kilburn and David Mattis, two Canadian lawyers. And they analyzed the multiple calls that were made to Chinese hospitals where the doctors themselves stated clearly that they had fallen-gone practitioner organs, they were healthy. And there are multiple calls all throughout China, not just one hospital, multiple hospitals. There's also evidence of blood tests being done on fallen-gone practitioners that are done in detention, in labor camps. The United Nations, as of 2021, stated there were multiple special rapporteurs who stated there's credible evidence that this is still continuing. Now, I know that people from around the world travel to China to get cheap organs on demand fast. It's called transplant tourism. Which countries ban this? Israel was the first country to pass legislation. Spain passed legislation in 2010, and multiple other countries, including Taiwan, Malaysia, most recently Britain and Canada, have passed the laws. And many of these are criminal laws where you get fined either monetarily or imprisoned for traveling to a country with unethical practices. Talk about any collaboration in the organ transplant industry between American scientists and Chinese scientists. Well, over the past two decades, since we saw the transplant explosion occur in China in the early 2000s, there have been multiple Chinese surgeons who've been trained by the West, many in the United States. There was actually a report that just came out from the Hudson Institute saying that in the United States we've trained probably at least 350 or so Chinese surgeons who then, with these skills that we teach them, go back and have committed these heinous crimes. So it's extremely important for the American medical community to be aware of these abuses because we are complicit with these crimes and we train surgeons who go back and then commit these atrocities. There's also a lot of research, collaboration between different major universities, not only in the United States, but also other European countries. So again, there's a lot of collaboration. In addition, I should mention the pharmaceutical industry also carries out a lot of research in China. So again, this highlights the importance of the world and particularly the medical community knowing about these atrocities. Dr. Santurian, recently the bipartisan bill called the Falun Gong Protection Act passed unanimously in the House. What sort of message will this send to China? It's going to send a very strong message to China that the United States is going to hold China accountable for these gross violations of medical ethics and these horrific human rights abuses. It will block any China's surgeons or others who are implicated in forced foreign harvesting from coming to the United States by blocking their visas. And that will send a very strong message to China that it's going to protect this victim group, which is the largest group. And I was shocked by the numbers that there were 70 to 100 million people practicing this in China when it was first introduced. And we are very encouraged by the support we've seen so far, and hopefully, like you mentioned, it'll be a bill by the end of the year. Yeah, it's so important for people to know about all of this. Alejandro Santurian, thank you so much for your time. It's my pleasure to have been with you, Chris. Thank you.