China’s barbaric practice of live organ harvesting exposed by survivor

New details about the horrifying practice of forcibly removing the internal organs of live political prisoners has been exposed by a survivor.

A man who managed to survive China’s barbaric practice of forcibly harvesting the organs of political prisoners, mostly while they are still alive, has broken his silence at an explosive press conference.

Cheng Pei Ming was detained in 1999 in Guozhuang in the country’s southwest for practising the banned religion Falun Gong, a spiritual practice in the Buddhist tradition.

After being held for three years, Mr Cheng was sentenced to eight years behind bars where he was routinely and brutally tortured by guards.

Among the acts he was subjected to was an interrogation tactic known as “the big stretch”, where his arms and legs were painfully extended by ropes to the point of his skin almost tearing.

During the first two years of his sentence, Mr Cheng was also subjected to regular blood tests – a method used by prison officials to check the health and viability of live organ donors, rights groups say.

In late 2004, he was taken to a hospital for an undisclosed surgery that he refused to consent to.

Mr Cheng was shackled to a hospital bed and forced to undergo organ removal.

“When I refused, six guards grabbed me and held me down and I was injected with something,” he recalled.

“The next thing I remember is being in a hospital bed with tubes in my nose and I was going in and out of consciousness. There was a tube with bloody liquid coming from under the bandaging that was on my side. I was also shackled to the hospital bed.”

Closely monitoring him the whole time were Communist Party officials from a clandestine agency.

Beijing’s secretive and powerful security force, known as the 610 Office, is tasked with cracking down on the Falun Gong religious movements.

Mr Cheng later discovered a 35 centimetre long incision running down the left side of his chest.

A photo secretly taken in a Chinese hospital after part of his left lung and liver were removed.

He was returned to prison, where he suffered acute shortness of breath and persistent fatigue, but continued to be tortured none-the-less.

He staged a hunger strike in 2006, which saw him transferred to hospital again and told he required another surgery.

Mr Cheng said he was shackled to a bed ahead of the undisclosed procedure.

“When they took me to the hospital again and said I had to have another operation, I thought for sure they were going to kill me,” Mr Cheng said.

He asked to use the toilet and a guard freed him and escorted him to a bathroom. When they returned, the officer forgot to reshackle his hands and feet, offering Mr Cheng an opportunity to escape.

He fled the hospital, flagged down a passing taxi, and disappeared into the night.

Mr Cheng's massive visible scar from the barbaric surgery he was forced to undergo.

Mr Cheng spent five years in a United Nations refugee camp in Thailand before reaching the United States in mid-2020.

American doctors who examined and tested him discovered that half of his left lung was missing, as well as two segments of his liver.

Independently verified CT scans have been distributed by advocacy groups.

Doctors believe the removal of part of Mr Cheng’s liver is consistent with the practice of harvesting hepatic tissue for pediatric liver transplantation.

Doctors in the US conducted tests that determined part of Mr Cheng's left lung had been removed.

Doctors in the US conducted tests that determined part of Mr Cheng’s liver had been removed.

Mr Ming is the only known survivor of Beijing’s state-sponsored brutal organ black market, which independent non-government groups believe has been going on for 25 years.

His extraordinary testimony has offered a disturbing insight into the fates endured by those jailed on trumped up charges or as a result of persecution.

The International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China chair Professor Wendy Rogers said in her view there was no medical need for parts of Mr Cheng’s lung and liver to be removed.

“This is a case of surgical assault resulting in the theft of organ parts, as well as pain and suffering,” Prof Rogers said.

“This case illustrates callous indifference to the human rights of prisoners of conscience in China. Not only was Mr Cheng incarcerated and tortured, he was drugged and assaulted by surgeons, who removed parts of his organs without consent or medical need.”

Doctors in the US conducted tests that determined part of Mr Cheng’s left lung had been removed.

The Communist Party has routinely denied all claims it has engaged in inhumane practices. It insists any organs from prisoners come from those who volunteer or have died.

But in 2020, the groundbreaking China Tribunal, chaired by world-renowned human rights barrister Sir Geoffrey Nice KC, concluded “beyond reasonable doubt” that Beijing had been forcibly harvesting organs on a shocking scale.

China has repeatedly denied the claims. Picture: AFP

Falun Gong is banned in China and its followers are regularly rounded up and jailed. Picture: AAP

The tribunal found victims were primarily people jailed for practising Falun Gong.

Since then, evidence has emerged to indicated persecuted Uyghur Muslims in China are also having their organs harvested.

Sir Nice KC described the practice as akin to crimes against humanity and estimated that 60,000 to 100,000 organ transplants are carried out in China each year.

The country’s organ trade is estimated to be worth about $US1 billion ($A1.52 billion) each year.

The groundbreaking China Tribunal declared state-sponsored forced organ harvesting was occurring "beyond reasonable doubt".

International human rights lawyer David Matas spoke alongside Mr Cheng at the weekend and said his case was typical of China’s horrific practice.

“In another sense, he is unusual because he survived organ extraction, his vital organs – liver and lung – have been extracted, only in part, and because he escaped both the Chinese authorities and China itself,” Mr Matas said.

He said China’s forced organ harvesting was happening on an unimaginable, almost industrial scale.

The Falun Gong Protection Act has been introduced into the US Senate earlier this month, seeking to impose sanctions on Beijing.

Speaking to The Diplomat at the weekend, Mr Cheng said finding freedom in the US had not erased the deep emotional and physical scars.

“I’ve lost years of my life, and the fear of being hunted by the CCP never truly goes away,” Mr Cheng told the outlet.

“Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night, reliving those days in prison. The faces of the guards, the cold sterility of the hospital room, the feeling of utter helplessness – it’s all still so vivid in my mind.”