118th CONGRESS 1st Session |
To provide for the imposition of sanctions with respect to forced organ harvesting within the People’s Republic of China, and for other purposes.
June 14, 2023
Mr. Perry (for himself, Mr. Burchett, Mr. Murphy, Ms. Salazar, Mr. Fallon, Mr. Tiffany, Mr. Bilirakis, and Mr. Fitzpatrick) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
To provide for the imposition of sanctions with respect to forced organ harvesting within the People’s Republic of China, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
This Act may be cited as the “Falun Gong Protection Act”.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Falun Gong is a spiritual practice in the Buddhist tradition that espouses the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. The practice was introduced in China by Mr. Li Hongzhi in 1992 and aims to improve physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being through exercise, meditation, and moral improvement.
(2) On July 20, 1999, after years of escalating harassment by the government, then-General Secretary Jiang Zemin launched an intensive, nationwide persecution designed to eradicate Falun Gong. Since then, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has detained hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners.
(3) In its 2020 Report on International Religious Freedom, released on May 12, 2021, the Department of State stated in its entry on China, “Prior to the government’s 1999 ban on Falun Gong, the government estimated there were 70 million adherents. Falun Gong sources estimate tens of millions continue to practice privately, and Freedom House estimates seven to 20 million practitioners.”.
(4) Freedom House in its Freedom in the World 2021 report entry on China stated that “the regime’s campaign to eradicate the Falun Gong spiritual group continued in 2020. Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners have received long prison terms in recent years, and many others are arbitrarily detained in various ‘legal education’ facilities. Detainees typically face torture aimed at forcing them to abandon their beliefs, sometimes resulting in deaths in custody.”.
(5) In its 2021 report, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom stated in its key findings for China, “according to reports, thousands of Falun Gong practitioners were harassed and arrested during 2020 for practicing their faith, and some likely died due to abuse and torture while in custody. Credible international reports also suggested that organ harvesting, including from Falun Gong practitioners, likely continued.”.
(6) The widespread, systematic, state-sponsored persecution of the Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party leadership of the PRC constitutes a clear violation of Falun Gong practitioners’ basic human rights and may constitute genocide.
(7) The campaign against Falun Gong is overseen by central branches of the Chinese Communist Party, including the so-called “Central Leading Group on Preventing and Dealing with Heretical Religions”. On May 12, 2021, Yu Hui, a former Office Director of this group, was targeted for sanctions by the United States Government.
(8) Reports, such as those mentioned in this legislation, suggest that China’s organ transplantation system does not comply with the majority of the World Health Organization’s Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation, insofar as organs are said to be primarily sourced from prisoners without voluntary consent, organs are reported to be traded for payment, the level of transparency and traceability in the organ procurement process is low, and the Chinese Communist Party has prevented independent or impartial inspection, scrutiny and verification of its transplant system.
(9) On June 14, 2021, a joint statement by United Nations human rights experts expressed extreme alarm over “reports of alleged ‘organ harvesting’ targeting minorities, including Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims, and Christians in detention in China”.
(10) Based on independent research and official statistics, it is clear that many organ transplants conducted in the PRC do not meet internationally accepted ethical standards.
(11) Freedom House in its Freedom in the World 2021 report entry on China stated that “The government claims it has ended the transplantation of organs from executed prisoners. However, the scale of the transplantation industry and the speed with which some organs are procured far exceed what is feasible via the country’s nascent voluntary donation system and there is growing international attention to possible crimes against humanity in connection with the practice.”.
(12) A 2019 forensic statistical analysis of organ donation data in the PRC, published in the BMC Medical Ethics journal, concluded the following: “China’s apparent systematic falsification of national organ donation data severely undermines the good faith efforts being made to integrate China into the international transplantation community.”.
(13) The United States had approximately 145 million registered organ donors in 2019: 19,257 persons donated their organs, resulting in 39,719 transplants; the ratio of actual donors to registered donors is approximately 0.00013. Similar ratios are observed in the United Kingdom, Canada and other countries. By contrast, the PRC claimed to have more than 900,000 registered organ donors by early 2019; data from China also indicates 5,818 organ donors and 19,454 transplants in 2019, resulting in a ratio of actual donors to registered donors of 0.0057. Although this comparison does not control for other possible variables, the fact that China’s nascent organ donation program yielded 44 times more organ donors from its organ donation pool than that of the United States in 2019 merits international scrutiny.
(14) Credible evidence suggests that Falun Gong practitioners are subject to widespread forced organ harvesting and are specifically targeted for this barbaric practice.
(15) In January of 2007, Canadian human rights attorney David Matas and former Canadian Secretary of State for the Asia Pacific region David Kilgour published findings confirming the likelihood that forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners was occurring in China. They also concluded that there was no evidence of a voluntary donation system in the PRC at the time and that, in spite of this, the Chinese Government reported a dramatic escalation in its organ transplantation infrastructure (a three-fold increase) between 1999 and 2004, parallel to the onset of the persecution of Falun Gong.
(16) In 2016, Matas, Kilgour, and investigative journalist Ethan Gutmann published an exhaustive report concluding that it is likely that between 60,000 and 100,000 organ transplants had been conducted per year since 2000, and that Falun Gong practitioners are the main source of organs for transplant in China.
(17) In its annual report for 2020, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China referenced reports raising concerns about the PRC falsifying organ donation data, casting additional doubt on the CCP’s claim to have ended forced organ harvesting.
(18) On March 1, 2020, the Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China, an investigative entity known as a people’s tribunal commissioned by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China, composed of relevant legal, cultural, and medical experts and led by Sir Geoffrey Nice, released its final judgment, including—
(A) very large numbers of transplant operations have been carried out in the PRC. The Tribunal assessed as credible the numbers of operations being between 60,000 and 90,000 annually in the years 2000 to 2014. The number of eligible registered donors was reportedly 5,146 in 2017, leaving an incomprehensible gap;
(B) “Forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale and that Falun Gong practitioners have been one—and probably the main—source of organ supply”;
(C) “Falun Gong practitioners in detention were systematically subjected to blood tests and organ examinations” while other prisoners were not tested, suggesting that Falun Gong practitioners were specifically selected or targeted for these medical examinations; and
(D) “… the PRC and its leaders actively incited the persecution, the imprisonment, murder, torture and the humiliation of Falun Gong practitioners with the sole purpose of eliminating the practice of, and belief in, the value of Falun Gong.”.
(19) The international nongovernmental organization Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting presented a petition with over three million signatures collected worldwide between 2012 to 2018 to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, calling for an investigation into forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong that went unheeded.
(20) In June 2016, the House of Representatives passed its fifth resolution condemning China’s persecution of Falun Gong with H. Res. 343 114, “Expressing concern regarding persistent and credible reports of systematic, state-sanctioned organ harvesting from non-consenting prisoners of conscience in the People’s Republic of China, including from large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners and members of other religious and ethnic minority groups” and calling for an end to the “eradication” campaign of Falun Gong and forced organ harvesting.
It is the sense of Congress that—
(1) killing a human being through involuntary organ extraction is an egregious violation of universal standards of medical ethics and is in direct contradiction of basic standards of human decency;
(2) the forced harvesting of organs violates article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.”, and article 4, which states that “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude.”;
(3) the United Nations Human Rights Council should issue a formal condemnation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for its persecution of Falun Gong;
(4) any collaboration with or participation in the PRC’s organ transplant system by the United States Government or a United States person or organization presents serious ethical challenges that would jeopardize the integrity of the United States organ transplantation system; and
(5) the Chinese Communist Party’s state-sponsored persecution of Falun Gong must come to an immediate end.
It is the policy of the United States to—
(1) avoid any cooperation with the PRC in the organ transplantation field while the Chinese Communist Party remains in power;
(2) take appropriate measures, including using relevant sanctions authorities, to coerce the Chinese Communist Party to end any state-sponsored organ harvesting campaign; and
(3) work with allies, partners, and multilateral institutions to highlight China’s persecution of Falun Gong and coordinate closely with the international community on targeted sanctions and visa restrictions.
SEC. 5. Imposition of sanctions with respect to forced organ harvesting within the People’s Republic of China.
(a) Imposition of sanctions.—The President shall impose the sanctions described in subsection (c) with respect to each foreign person included in the most recent list submitted pursuant to subsection (b).
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a list of foreign persons, including senior government officials, military leaders, and other persons who the President determines are knowingly responsible for or complicit in, or have directly or indirectly engaged in, the involuntary harvesting of organs within the People’s Republic of China.
(2) UPDATES OF LISTS.—The President shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees an updated list under paragraph (1)—
(A) as new information becomes available;
(B) not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act; and
(C) annually thereafter for five years.
(3) FORM.—The list required by paragraph (1) shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex.
(c) Sanctions described.—The sanctions described in this subsection are the following:
(1) BLOCKING OF PROPERTY.—The President shall exercise all of the powers granted to the President by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (except that the requirements of section 202 of such Act (50 U.S.C. 1701) shall not apply) to the extent necessary to block and prohibit all transactions in property and interests in property of the person if such property and interests in property are in the United States, come within the United States, or are or come within the possession or control of a United States person.
(2) INADMISSIBILITY OF CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS.—
(A) INELIGIBILITY FOR VISAS, ADMISSION, OR PAROLE.—A foreign person included in the most recent list submitted pursuant to subsection (b) is—
(i) inadmissible to the United States;
(ii) ineligible to receive a visa or other documentation to enter the United States; and
(iii) otherwise ineligible to be admitted or paroled into the United States or to receive any other benefit under the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.).
(B) CURRENT VISAS REVOKED.—A foreign person described in subparagraph (A) is also subject to the following:
(i) Revocation of any visa or other entry documentation regardless of when the visa or other entry documentation is or was issued.
(ii) A revocation under clause (i) shall take effect immediately and automatically cancel any other valid visa or entry documentation that is in the foreign person’s possession.
(3) EXCEPTION.—Sanctions under paragraph (2) shall not apply to an alien if admitting or paroling the alien into the United States is necessary to permit the United States to comply with the Agreement regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations, signed at Lake Success June 26, 1947, and entered into force November 21, 1947, between the United Nations and the United States, or other applicable international obligations of the United States.
(d) Penalties.—The penalties provided for in subsections (b) and (c) of section 206 of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) shall apply to a person who violates, attempts to violate, conspires to violate, or causes a violation of regulations promulgated to carry out subsection (a) to the same extent that such penalties apply to a person who commits an unlawful act described in section 206(a) of that Act.
(e) Exception To comply with national security.—The following activities shall be exempt from sanctions under this section:
(1) Activities subject to the reporting requirements under title V of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3091 et seq.).
(2) Any authorized intelligence or law enforcement activities of the United States.
(a) In general.—Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Director of the National Institutes of Health, shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on the organ transplant policies and practices of the People’s Republic of China.
(b) Matters To be included.—The report required under subsection (a) shall include—
(1) a summary of de jure and de facto policies toward organ transplantation in the PRC, including with respect to prisoners of conscience (including Falun Gong) and other prisoners;
(2) (A) the number of organ transplants that are known to occur or are estimated to occur on an annual basis in the PRC;
(B) the number of known or estimated voluntary organ donors in the PRC;
(C) an assessment of the sources of organs for transplant in the PRC; and
(D) an assessment of the time, in days, that it takes to procure an organ for transplant within the Chinese medical system and an assessment of whether such timetable is possible based on the number of known or estimated organ donors in the PRC;
(3) a list of all United States grants over the past ten years that have supported research on organ transplantation in the PRC or in collaboration between a Chinese and a United States entity; and
(4) a determination as to whether the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners within the People’s Republic of China constitutes an “atrocity” (as such term is defined in section 6 of the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018 (Public Law 115–441; 22 U.S.C. 2656 note)).
(c) Form.—The report required under subsection (a) shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex.
SEC. 7. Appropriate congressional committees defined.
In this Act, the term “appropriate congressional committees” means—
(1) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives; and
(2) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate.