The Chinese Communist Party is the “bully on the block” claims Texas Lawmaker
Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) on April 9, 2021, said that the U.S. should take a bold stance against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and hold it accountable for illegal organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China.
“The U.S. government has stood idly by for far too long,” Babin said in an interview with The Epoch Times. “This is one of the worst practices. It harkens back to the Nazi era in the 30s and 40s.”
The first legislation to combat China’s state-sanctioned practice of forced organ harvesting that targets religious and ethnic minorities was introduced in early March by a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers in the House and the Senate.
If approved, the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act would hold the CCP accountable for “these inhumane atrocities,” according to Babin, who has co-sponsored the House bill (H.R.1592). Similar legislation was introduced in the previous session of Congress in December last year.
While there have been a number of congressional hearings and resolutions condemning forced organ harvesting, there’s no U.S. law that addresses China’s forced organ harvesting.
According to Babin, the international community has remained silent on this issue despite the vast amount of evidence of this practice. This is mainly because the CCP is the “bully on the block,” pressuring other governments both economically and militarily.
“I think also here in the United States, we’ve seen people that may have either inadvertently or on purpose—because of profits, because of political pressure—looked the other way. And it’s time to stop doing that,” he said. It’s reminiscent of how people looked the other way in the 1930s, he noted.
If enacted, the bill would authorize the U.S. government to identify, expose, and sanction individuals and government officials responsible for human trafficking or organ harvesting across the world.
The bill also mandates an annual report by the U.S. State Department on human organ trafficking in foreign countries. The report would introduce a tiered ranking system for determining which countries have the lowest (tier one), intermediate (tier two), and the highest (tier three) levels of organ harvesting and trafficking. This reporting system would shed light on governments that are directly or indirectly involved in the crime.
Following the final judgment issued in June last year by the China Tribunal, an independent people’s tribunal based in London, the issue of organ harvesting in China has gained prominence.
The tribunal found that the killing of detainees in China for their organs has continued since allegations of forced organ harvesting for transplant surgery first surfaced in 2006. The tribunal concluded that the practice has been taking place “on a significant scale,” with adherents of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that’s also known as Falun Dafa, being the “principal source” of human organs.
Even after the tribunal’s judgment, more evidence of organ transplant crimes continues to emerge in China with investigative reports indicating that the number of organs harvested continues to rise and that organs are available on demand, with short waiting times.
If passed, the U.S. bill would end the silence on this issue, according to human rights experts. The U.S. government would be able to deny or revoke passports for people who engage in the illegal purchase of organs.
The bill would also mandate an annual report on collaboration between the U.S. medical institutions and foreign entities involved in forced organ harvesting. In addition, it would prohibit the export of transplant surgery devices to entities involved in this crime.
“The time to act is now. People are being murdered. And these atrocities will continue as long as we look the other way,” Babin said.
Falun Gong is a peaceful practice based on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. The CCP launched a brutal persecution campaign against this practice in 1999 due to its growing popularity and the large numbers of Chinese citizens practicing Falun Gong. Untold numbers of practitioners have been detained, imprisoned and even killed for their organs. Forced organ harvesting is probably the worst genocide in human history.