US Compiles List of Chinese Officials Linked to Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners
By Daniel Cameron, NTD India | Dec 20, 2017
U.S. State Department officials overseeing human rights issues in the Asia Pacific region have announced that President Donald Trump has given the directive to compile a thorough list of human rights violators, which would involve a listing of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials who have participated in the harvesting of organs from Falun Gong practitioners.
This directive is based on the implementation of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, a legislation targeting foreign citizens responsible for killing, torture, and corruption. U.S. officials have confirmed the work is well under way, and Chinese officials suspected of any form of involvement in the persecution of Falun Gong, and who have since settled in the United States with their families will be among the first to be investigated.
Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) is a meditation practice based on the universal principles of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.” It was introduced in China in 1992. Due to its immense health benefits, in just a couple of years, more than 70–100 million people were practicing Falun Gong’s peaceful meditative exercises in China alone. But on July 20, 1999 the former leader of the Chinese communist regime, Jiang Zemin, announced an illegal nationwide campaign of persecution and torture against this peaceful practice.
Chairman of the Taiwan Association for China Human Rights, Mr. Yang Hianghong, spoke to the Sound of Hope Radio (SOH) network about his meeting with U.S. State Department officials during their recent visit to Taiwan, where they discussed the implementation of the legislation.
Mr. Yang relayed his conversation with one U.S. official, and said: “The official says that the U.S. State Department is doing a great deal of preparation right now. He also brought up the situation of how Falun Gong is being persecuted very severely, in particular, the issue of ‘live organ harvesting.’ A great deal of Chinese officials are involved in the organ harvesting criminal syndicate to a greater or lessor extent. We are of course very clear about other persecution cases, such as the 709 lawyer crackdown. But, I’m afraid no other persecution cases have been documented in such specific detail as the materials on hand pertaining to the issue of ‘live organ harvesting.’ So, as the U.S. official said, those materials concerning Falun Gong are the most comprehensive, and are the easiest to compile.”
As early as February of this year, Mr. Yang confirms that U.S. officials have, on multiple occasions, mentioned to him that the Act will be implemented, and that “U.S. lawmakers told us that the State Department is already compiling the list.”
In a letter dated April 20, President Trump outlined his administration’s support for the legislation, and wrote: “…my Administration is actively identifying persons and entities to whom the Act may apply and are collecting the evidence necessary to apply it. Over the coming weeks and months, agencies will undertake thorough interagency vetting to ensure we fulfill our commitment to hold perpetrators of human rights abuses and corruption accountable.”
Mr. Yang further relayed what he was advised during his White House visit on May 19, on how corrupt Chinese officials are going to get dealt with: “It’s these people who’ve been acting wantonly over there, then laundering money into the United States, even sending their wives and children over. But if you continue to do so and undermine human rights, we (the U.S. government) will absolutely not hold back in confiscating all your assets in the United States, and deporting your wife and children back.”
According to SOH, the Trump administration will announce the first batch of sanctions upon implementing the “Magnitsky Law on Human Rights Accountability Act” by Dec. 19.
Visit this article, translated and published by NTD India. Or visit the original article by Sound of Hope Radio, Chinese edition.