A former Chinese official has exposed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) systemic practice of forced organ harvesting, shedding light on a harrowing reality hidden from much of the world. Based on his first-hand experiences during 12 years of wrongful imprisonment in China, Du Wen details a disturbing industry that turns human lives into commodities.
Du, once the executive director of the Legal Advisory Office of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Government, now resides in Belgium after fleeing China in 2023. His startling testimony provides direct insight into the CCP’s organ harvesting operation, which he asserts has been active since the 1990s and is orchestrated on a massively disturbing scale.
Murder on demand
Speaking to the Chinese-edition of The Epoch Times on Dec. 16, 2024, Du recounted how organ transplant advertisements outside major hospitals in Beijing revealed the existence of a sophisticated organ trade network. “I used to say, ‘Where is the evidence?’ That is evidence!” said Du, adding, “Every single advertisement is evidence. Every phone call is evidence: organs are being openly bought and sold.”
The advertisements promised swift organ matching, with hotlines for customers seeking transplants. “As long as you pay enough, they’ll grab a live person, harvest the organs, and sell them to you,” Du said, describing the organized system involving doctors, hospitals, and even prison authorities.
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The CCP has long been accused of advertising live human organs for sale by listing available hearts, livers, and kidneys as if they were items on a shopping list. This gruesome commodification of human lives for profit underscores the urgent need for international condemnation and legislative action to halt these atrocities, noted Du.
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The gruesome process
Du’s exposure to the CCP’s organ harvesting began during his imprisonment. Over the six years in the detention center, he observed death-row prisoners being prepared for organ extraction before execution.
He recalled a conversation with a court officer about how death-row inmates were executed. The officer revealed a chilling truth: Injections were no longer required to end the lives of prisoners. Instead, anesthesia was administered to harvest organs while the inmates were still alive, proving that some doctors in China are using these operations as a form of execution.
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“They just inject anesthesia, take the organs, and the person dies,” Du recounted. “The family doesn’t see the body, they’re not allowed to, only the ashes are shown to them.”
Du also encountered wealthy inmates who spoke openly about their organ transplants, revealing how easy it was to procure a match. These inmates paid exorbitant sums for procedures that Du learned were often sourced from still-living individuals. “The scale might far exceed what outsiders expect,” said Du. “Just in one small section of our prison, so many people had liver and kidney transplants. Where did these organs come from? How many were actually donated?”
Targeting Falun Gong
Independent investigations — including by the 2019 China Tribunal in London — have long accused the CCP of harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience and other disenfranchised groups like Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghur Muslims, and Tibetan activists. Falun Gong, a spiritual practice rooted in truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, has faced relentless persecution in China after the CCP launched an all-out eradication campaign in 1999.
Since then, thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have perished at the hands of Chinese police for refusing to renounce their faith, while many are routinely subjected to harassment such as arbitrary arrests,travel bans, and surveillance.
Du’s testimony aligns with these findings, revealing that practitioners are often targeted because their organs are deemed healthier due to their abstinence from smoking and drinking. “The best organs come from those aged between 16 and 22,” he noted, describing the practice as “murder on demand.”
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He also highlighted the price differentiation in organ sales based on the donor’s age and health. Wealthy buyers could pay between 900,000 yuan (USD$123,313) and 3 million yuan (USD$411,043) for transplants, with younger, healthier organs commanding higher prices.
The cost of speaking out
Du’s journey to understanding the CCP’s forced organ harvesting followed three stages: disbelief, acknowledgment of death-row harvesting, and finally, acceptance of the practice targeting Falun Gong practitioners and other marginalized groups.
He recounted a chilling encounter with a woman who sought his help after realizing one of her kidneys was missing following a sterilization surgery. As Du attempted to assist her in gathering evidence for a report, the woman mysteriously disappeared. “This happened last year,” he said, just before fleeing China himself.
Du’s revelations add to the growing evidence of the CCP’s horrifying organ harvesting practices. The global community has increasingly taken notice. In recent years, survivors and whistleblowers have stepped forward, risking their lives to expose the regime’s atrocities.
“This is large-scale organ harvesting from living people,” said Du as he urged the international community to confront these abuses.
