Researcher Calls for Ban on Western Tech Supporting CCP’s Organ Harvesting
Testifying before a congressional panel, experts discussed strategies to stop Beijing’s forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience.
They are urging U.S. authorities to limit the export of Western transplant-related technologies to China, pointing to the state-sponsored practice of killing for organs that could further expand with such assistance.
Matthew Robertson, a research fellow specializing in China studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, proposed implementing export bans on transplant-related technologies and pharmaceuticals, as well as prohibiting U.S.-linked businesses from engaging in China’s transplant industry.
He also suggested that the Treasury Department could sanction Chinese medical hospitals involved in these practices, which are some of the largest and most well-resourced in China, preventing them from transacting with any U.S. individuals.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), described the forced organ harvesting in China as “an atrocity unmatched in its wickedness” during the hearing.
Researchers are increasingly alarmed about the spread of forced organ harvesting to other oppressed groups in China.
During the hearing, human rights investigator Ethan Gutmann shared accounts from former detainees about unexplained blood tests and disappearances in detention camps in Xinjiang.
Additionally, Maya Mitalipova, director of the human stem cell lab at MIT’s Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, highlighted companies complicit in China’s organ harvesting crimes, including U.S.-based Thermo Fisher Scientific and China’s BGI Group.
The U.S. government has sanctioned several affiliates of BGI Group for conducting genetic analysis for the Chinese regime, but the company has denied involvement in human rights abuses.
Rep. Tom Oliverson from Texas attended the hearing to discuss the legislation in Texas and Utah that combat forced organ harvesting from China.
Efforts are being made in both states to ban health insurers from funding organ transplants originating from China.
Furthermore, a bill has been passed in the House to sanction individuals involved in forced organ harvesting activities and require annual government reporting on such practices in foreign countries.
