News in Review

President Trump Orders Persecutors of Falun Gong Accountable Under Magnitsky Act

By directive of President Donald Trump, the U.S. State Department will enforce the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act by investigating those suspected of human rights abuses, including those suspected of participating in the persecution of Falun Gong. The President stated, “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.”

Falun Dafa Information Center Spokesperson Testifies at Congressional Hearing

On October 11th, the Congressional International Religious Freedom (IRF) Caucus and non-governmental organization IRF Roundtable jointly held a congressional briefing on religious freedom in China. Falun Dafa Information Center spokesperson Erping Zhang said the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is ongoing despite changes in Beijing’s leadership. Zhang urged the United States to pressure China about human rights violations, including the forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong adherents.

Bodies Exhibit Banned by Swiss Officials Over Human Rights Concerns

City officials in Lausanne, Switzerland cancelled the scheduled exhibition of “Real Human Bodies” at the urging of British human rights organization Action by Christians Against Torture (ACAT). ACAT asserted that “the bodies used in this exhibition are very probably those of Chinese prisoners who were tortured or executed and members of the Falun Gong movement, which is banned in China.”

Bristol Against Forced Organ Harvesting Demands City Cut Ties with Guangzhou

The city of Bristol, United Kingdom receives significant financial investment from China as part of its “twinned city” relationship with the Chinese city of Guangzhou. Concerned that this partnership implies approval of Chinese policies, the non-profit organization Bristol Against Forced Organ Harvesting is calling on Bristol’s City Council to cut ties with Guangzhou, which is home to the world’s largest transplant hospital and likely a key participant in China’s systematic forced organ harvesting program.

Australian Academic Continues Campaign of China’s Misinformation and Propaganda

Campbell Frasier, senior lecturer at Griffith University’s Department of International Business and Asian Studies is being investigated for the third time on allegations of academic misconduct and making defamatory statements about members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement. Frasier, often quoted by Chinese state media, claims organ harvesting from Falun Gong and other prisoners of conscience does not exist despite independent research showing that organ harvesting, the forced removal of organs from unwilling donors, is widespread and ongoing in China. He is currently banned from speaking to the media on the subject or traveling abroad.

Prominent Author Claims all Levels of Australian Politics Influenced by Chinese State

The publishing of Silent Invasion: Chinese Influence in Australia, a book written by respected Australian intellectual and author Clive Hamilton, was delayed as the original publisher, Allen & Unwin, feared an onslaught of defamation suits from Australian nationals loyal to the Chinese Communist Party. Hamilton’s book has since been published by Hardie Grant Books who, unlike the initial publisher, did not kowtow to CCP pressure.

Fundamental Flaws in China’s Justice System Encourage Corruption and Abuse

 In China, confessions, not evidence, is still the primary way to secure convictions. Confessions are often extorted under torture. Ms. Zhu claims her son was wrongfully executed for murder not only because the real killer bribed the judge but because the healthy 28-year-old’s organs were valuable. “We demanded to see the remains of my son, but the court refused, we wanted to see whether my child’s body was intact. They only gave us a slip of paper to collect his ashes the next day. It means they took his organs.”

Xinjiang Airport Human Organ Priority Line Seen as Proof of Organ Harvesting

Japanese journalist Hataru Nomura calls China’s vivisecting of those deemed undesirable to fuel its hugely profitable transplant industry as “none other than the devil’s business model.” China has a database of blood type, DNA, fingerprint, and eye color for 40 million Uyghurs, Tibetans, Falun Gong practitioners, and Christians. The priority lane marked “Special Passengers, Human Organ Exportation Lane,” installed in Kashgar Airport, Xinjing Uyghur Autonomous Region, can be considered additional proof of China’s ever-expanding organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience.