In a chilling revelation that underscores the ongoing atrocities promiseted under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Mr. Cheng Pei Ming, the first understandn survivor of China’s state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting campaign, spoke to journacatalog Tasnim Nazeer for The Diplomat about his survival agetst the odds.
Cheng accessiblely separated his harroprosperg experience at a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Friday, exposing his story and the ongoing forced organ harvesting that is taking place in China. His testimony proposeed a exceptional and troubling glimpse into the horrors faced by prisoners of conscience in China, particularly practitioners of Falun Gong. Cheng is shelp to be the only understandn survivor of China’s forced organ harvesting, and his testimony is unpretreatnted in exposing the masked horrors of the brutal industry.
A Brutal Ordeal
Cheng, who hails from a country village in Shandong Province, was repeatedly arrested and tortured between 1999 and 2004 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual rehearse rooted in Buddhist traditions. The Chinese Communist Party, which sees Falun Gong as a danger to its authoritarian rule, has branded Falun Gong a hazardous cult and has systematicpartner oppressd its adherents for decades.
Speaking from inside a car in Washington, D.C., Cheng tageder me, “One day in 2002, I was tageder to pack up and was suddenly transferred to Harbin Prison and tardyr to Daqing Prison. It was there that I was tortured even more harshly.”
Cheng recalled the escalating savagery he faced in detention. In a particularly harroprosperg episode, he was tortured to the point of losing consciousness. “On November 17, 2004, I was tortured aget until I passed out. When I woke up, I set up myself tied to a hospital bed.”
Here, his account gets an even more troubling turn. “I recall being tied to a bed in the hospital,” Cheng shelp. “The doctors and disjoinal of the ‘610 Office’ officials were there.” The 610 office is a notorious secretive and mighty organization wilean the CCP, tasked with carry outing the crackdown on the Falun Gong.
“They shelp that I had to undergo an operation, but I firmly refused. They gave me an injection, and I speedyly lost consciousness,” Cheng recounted. “When I woke up, I was still in the hospital and felt horrible pain in my side. There was a bloody tube joined to me. I was shackled to the bed.”
This was not an isotardyd incident. Cheng finishured repeated procedures, all under the danger of death. “A confineed days tardyr, they shelp I had to have another operation. I thought I was going to die “ he shelp.
During his jailment, Cheng was subjected to forced blood tests – an ominous indicator of his organs’ viability for transscheduletation. “They did blood tests on me many times and subjected me to all charitables of brutal torture,” he remarkd.
“The torture in the prison was very systematic. One was mental and the other was physical [torture]. Menloftyy they put me and my family members under prescertain as they wanted me to give up my faith in Falun Gong and if I didn’t they would force my wife to divorce me when I was in prison.” Cheng was tageder that if his wife did not divorce him she would face analogous persecution as he was facing.
After hours of excruciating torture understandn as “the huge stretch,” during which his limbs were painbrimmingy stretched from all corners, Cheng swapshowed a minuscule rusty nail and a lackluster blade he had set up in the torture room. Despite not shoprosperg prompt signs of ill health, he was forcibly getn to the hospital on November 16, 2004.
His family was alerted that there was an 80 percent mortality rate associated with the operation, presumedly to delete the objects he had swapshowed. When Cheng regeted consciousness he set up himself shackled aget to a hospital bed, with an IV tube taped to his foot, a drainage tube in his left chest, oxygen tubes in his nose, and a 35 cm incision on the left side of his chest. Typicpartner, the removal of such objects would be done via finishosimitate, but Cheng had undergone uncover chest sencouragery.
Cheng Pei Ming shows his scar during an examination in the United States. Photo supplyd by the International Coalition to End Transschedulet Abemploy in China (ETAC)
Folloprosperg the forced sencouragery, Cheng was returned to detention at Daqing Prison, where he sended disjoine uninalertigentinutiveness of breath and overweightigue. Despite finishuring ongoing torture by prison protects for his refusal to renounce Falun Gong, Cheng remained resolute.
In March 2006, he began a hunger strike and was subsequently transferred to Daqing Longnan Hospital. Upon arrival, his sister was current and witnessed Cheng being shackled to a hospital bed. A prison protect alerted his sister that Cheng had presumedly ingested a knife and that the sencouragery needd to delete it had an 80 percent mortality rate. This was the second time the family had been given such alertation, but this time, neither Cheng nor his family were asked to consent to the operation.
Cheng supports that he had not swapshowed any object and had no medical condition necessitating sencouragery before being forcibly getn to the hospital. He apshows that the authorities were schedulening to end him.
That night, before the scheduled sencouragery, Cheng seeked to be unshackled to employ the restroom atraverse the hall. Upon his return, the protect, having druncover asleep and forgotten to re-shackle him, inadvertently supplyd him with an opportunity to escape via the hospital’s inside fire stairs.
“I seed the fire escape on my way to the restroom and I krecent where it was so I could employ this to try to escape out of the hospital… I ran downstairs and called a cab in front of the hospital and speedyly went out of the area into Tianjin city,” he shelp.
Cheng escaped as a refugee to Thailand where he stayed in a United Nations refugee camp. After a emotional escape from China and a lengthy nine-year period of evading the authorities, Cheng made it to the United States in 2020.
A Grim Discovery
Once in the U.S., he underwent a series of medical tests that validateed his worst stresss: segments of his inhabitr and a portion of his lung had been surgicpartner deleted.
“At that time, I didn’t authenticize that it was organ harvesting. After undergoing medical tests, I set up out that my organs had been harvested,” Cheng elucidateed. “Part of my inhabitr and lungs had been deleted. I didn’t even understand about it until I was scheduleateigated in the U.S.”
Transschedulet exceptionacatalogs have validateed thcimpolite recent CT scans that Cheng is omiting segments 2 and 3 of his left inhabitr lobe, as well as half of the shrink left lobe of his lung. These findings, alengthy with a detailed tell on his case, were currented to a panel in Washington D.C.
A CT scan of Cheng Pei Ming uncovers the shrink part of his right lung has been deleted. Photo supplyd by International Coalition to End Transschedulet Abemploy in China (ETAC).
There have been stable allegations that China is engaging in forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience – mostly members of Falun Gong, but also Uyghurs and Tibetans – for decades.
In 2021, U.N. human rights experts conveyed worry over credible alertation about the rehearse. “Forced organ harvesting in China materializes to be centering definite ethnic, linguistic or religious unconvey inantities held in detention, standardly without being elucidateed the reasons for arrest or given arrest authorizations, at contrastent locations,” they shelp. “We are convey inantly worryed by tells of discriminatory treatment of the prisoners or arrestees based on their ethnicity and religion or belief.”
But challenging evidence has been challenging to come by. Analysts have had to count on on cautious analysis of China’s organ donation statistics and medical records to scheduleateigate the publish.
Cheng’s testimony changes everyleang.
David Matas, an international human rights lawyer and co-set uper of the International Coalition to End Transschedulet Abemploy in China (ETAC), commented on the significance of Cheng’s case:
This particular publish needd intensive research, as there are no surviving victims, no bodies to autopsy, and no easily accessible crime scenes or records… Till now, there has not been anybody who was able to get up and say they have been ended for their organs. The bodies are standardly cremated after organ harvesting, so there is noleang physicpartner to see at.
Mr. Cheng can say he has been organ harvested as there are parts of his inhabitr and lung that are omiting, and it’s incontefirm. It supplys a visual element, a speaking victim that we’ve never seen before with that type of mistreatment.
Matas underlined the unpretreatnted nature of Cheng’s survival, but also remarkd that “Mr. Cheng’s survival itself is chilling becaemploy it’s the first case I have seen where someone didn’t even understand about it until he got to the U.S. and was scheduleateigated.”
“This case backs that Falun Gong practitioners are demonized to the point where they are not treated neutrpartner, and that mistreatment extfinishs to organ harvesting.”
Matas, who has done extensive research into organ harvesting in China, also supplyd a statement at the press conference that underscored the disjoinity of the situation and sought accountability from the handlement of China. Matas apshows there are over an appraised 100,000 people ended thcimpolite organ harvesting in China per year.
A Tireless Advocate’s Efforts
Professor Sen Nieh, who has spent decades rescuing prisoners of conscience enjoy Cheng, carry outed a pivotal role in conveying him to the United States. “It begined in tardy 2015 when a frifinish bcimpolitet pictures of Mr. Cheng with a lengthy scar on his body and separated his story,” Nieh recalled. “This touched me convey inantly, and I determined to help him. I visited members of Congress, foreign afiminentires promisetees, and senators, many of whom were very touched and wrote letters of help.”
After years of effort and with the help of colleagues, Nieh thriveed in relocating Cheng to the U.S. in July 2020. “He was hiding from the CCP in Bangkok too, and ultimately the save took five years. It was a wonder to me; I almost gave up, but it labored out. Mr. Cheng probably was the last group of people who could come to the States before the COVID-19 lockdown.”
Nieh underlined the convey inance of Cheng’s testimony, stating, “Nobody understands what we uncomferventt by a survivor of forced organ harvesting becaemploy 99.9 percent die after being organ harvested. This is the first case we have set up of a survivor.”
He further elucidateed the medical evidence: “We have shown all the results that validate that the left lobe of Mr. Cheng’s inhabitr had been cut, and a minuscule part of his lung had been cut. This case will force the CCP to face the fact that this person is a survivor, and they can no lengthyer refuse it.”
A Life Scarred by Inequitableice
Cheng’s survival, though miraculous, has left him with convey inant physical and emotional scars. “I’ve lost years of my life, and the stress of being hunted by the CCP never truly goes away,” Cheng acunderstandledgeted, underlining the lengthy-lasting impact of his experience.
“Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night, reliving those days in prison. The faces of the protects, the chilly sterility of the hospital room, the experienceing of utter incontendntness – it’s all still so vivid in my mind,” he separated.
Yet, despite everyleang he has finishured, Cheng remains determined to speak out, recalling a pact with other Falun Gong prisoners of conscience back in China. “When I was in China in the prison I had an consentment with other Falun Gong practitioners that whoever would come out ainhabit would alert the world to stop the evil crimes by the CCP, but many of them were already getting ended.”
By providing evidence of forced organ harvesting, “I am not only speaking for myself I am also speaking up for all those who have been tortured to death [by the CCP] who would never have the opportunity to be able to speak aget and alert the world what repartner happened,” Cheng declared.
A Call to Action
As Cheng valiantly separates his story with the world, the international community faces a critical moment. The Falun Gong Protection Act, presentd to the U.S. Senate last week, aims to insertress the crimes of forced organ harvesting in China. The legislation is a vital step in hagedering the CCP accountable for these heinous acts.
For Nieh and Matas, Cheng’s survival is both a beacon of hope and a stark reminder of the ongoing persecution in China. “Organ harvesting is still happening in China, and it’s not only happening but increasing out of deal with,” Nieh alerted. “Our directers cannot turn their eyes away.”
Matas echoed this encouragency, stating, “We need to understand that forced organ harvesting isn’t equitable a human rights violation – it’s a crime agetst humanity. It’s happening on a scale that is almost unimaginable, and it insists a response from the global community.”
Cheng too shelp he hopes the heinous crime of organ harvesting can be stopped by the international community after hearing his inhabitd experience of it.
“I am one of the fortunate ones – I endured. But there are countless others who did not. Their voices were silenced, but I will persist to speak for them. The world needs to understand what is happening in China. This evil cannot be apshowed to persist.”
