First Known Survivor of Forced Organ Harvesting Comes Forward

In August 2024, Cheng Peiming, a 59-year-old Falun Gong practitioner who is the first known survivor of forced organ harvesting in China, came forward at a press conference in Washington D.C. to expose the Chinese regime’s crimes.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) issued a widely circulated public response aimed at discrediting Cheng and other advocates against organ harvesting. However, this response inadvertently confirms critical aspects of Cheng’s account.

On August 9, Cheng Peiming recounted his harrowing experience from November 16, 2004, when six prison guards forcibly administered anesthesia to him at Longnan Hospital while he was serving an eight-year sentence for practicing Falun Gong. When he awoke three days later, he found himself shackled to a hospital bed, with tubes inserted into his body and significant pain and numbness in his left ribs.

In March 2006, Cheng took a narrow opportunity to escape from the hospital when he had the chance, and as expected, an extreme panic within the Daqing Prison ensued as forces were mobilized to set up security checkpoints and offer rewards for information about his whereabouts. Cheng’s family and neighborhood were harassed to locate him, rearrest him, and cover up their crimes. 

Only after escaping to the United States in 2020 and learning about the forced organ harvesting perpetrated by the CCP did he undergo a series of medical tests which ultimately confirmed his worst fears: Part of his liver and a portion of his lung was gone.

Following Cheng’s public testimony, the CCP issued a lengthy article attempting to discredit him but inadvertently supported his claims. The article avoided addressing Cheng’s suffering directly, instead criticizing the press conference room’s “low-ceilinged, cramped” conditions and dismissing forced organ harvesting as a “rumor” spread by “Western anti-China forces.” Ultimately, the article suggests that Cheng’s surgery was for removing a blade and nail that he ingested while in prison.

Despite the CCP’s denials, the article may have admitted more than intended. Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom at Hudson Institute, noted that the article provides crucial evidence for Cheng’s story. She stated that it confirms Cheng was imprisoned for his beliefs, that he was sent to the hospital, that the surgery occurred, and that the scar on his body is a result of the forced organ harvesting.

Robert Destro, who facilitated Cheng’s escape to the U.S. while serving as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor, indicated that the CCP’s specific response signals a serious concern regarding Cheng’s case. He expressed the sentiment that the article marks a break from the CCP’s long standing pattern of issuing generic, blanket denials to cover up its crimes. According to Shea, the article also highlights that the Chinese authorities are “on the defensive,” with denials being issued by public security rather than medical authorities.

Cheng’s survival underscores a broader pattern of state-sanctioned persecution and abuse. Robert Destro remarked to The Epoch Times, “Most of the time, people are dead, they can’t talk.” During the press conference, Cheng emphasized that he was speaking not only for himself but also for many others who remain at risk of similar inhumane treatment by the CCP.

Cheng explained that he and fellow Falun Gong practitioners had pledged that whoever survived would reveal the truth about their experiences to the world. 

Practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, have long faced the threat of forced organ harvesting as part of the Chinese regime’s campaign to eradicate the faith.

Evidence of this systematic abuse first came to light in 2006, two years after Cheng’s surgery, when whistleblowers provided accounts of Falun Gong practitioners being killed for their organs in clandestine Chinese facilities. This year, the United States has called on the Chinese regime to open its doors to international scrutiny, and the House has approved the Falun Gong Protection Act, which has also been introduced in the Senate, to curb the abuse.