By Es Oli, First Place winner of the 2024 Human Rights Essay Contest – High School Division
When most people think about China they think about China’s architectural marvels like the Great Wall of China, their delectable cuisine, or the fact that China is the richest country in the world. Most do not think about the horrible human rights violations that go on behind the scenes; the events that are not shared in newspapers, on the nightly televised news, or social media. Some of these issues are organ harvesting, re-education camps for Uyghur Muslims, and the limiting of religion. Human rights must be protected at all costs.
“They said that I had to undergo an operation, but I firmly refused. They held me down and gave me an injection, and I quickly lost consciousness. When I woke up, I was still in the hospital and felt terrible pain in my side. There was a bloody tube connected to me. I was shackled to the bed,” recounted Cheng Pei Ming, a survivor of forced organ harvesting who was imprisoned for being a practitioner of the Falun Gong religion. When Americans think of the words “organ donation,” they think of a choice a person has made to extend the life of another person. In many parts of the world, like China, organ donation is not always a choice. Organ harvesting is the practice of forcing someone, usually an inmate or a victim of human trafficking, to undergo organ-removal surgery. After the organs are removed, they are sold illegally.
The process of ethical organ donation states that no one can benefit financially from the organ donation process, but due to the fact that the need for organ donation is much larger than the supply, some desperate patients are willing to illegally purchase an organ. This desire for organs fuels the billion-dollar industry known as the illegal organ trade. While organ harvesting is a problem across the globe, China is the major producer of illegally harvested organs-the very first victim of organ harvesting was a Chinese prisoner in 1960. For the next decades, forced donation from prisoners was shockingly common. While China officially discontinued the harvesting of organs from inmates in 2015 and vowed that organ donation would only be voluntary, many believe that the rapid expansion of China’s so-called “voluntary” transplant system is questionable. Their voluntary organ donation system was formed in 2013. Prior to 2013, China had few voluntary donors, but two years later, in 2015, China claimed that 2766 people had donated organs. Many members of the medical community wonder if all 2766 people consented to their procedures because the statistics do not line up with China’s statement. Studies show that there are 3.9 deceased donors per million people and only 47.45% of the public have the desire to donate.
In 2021, eight years after China officially banned the harvesting of organs from prisoners and formed a voluntary organ donation system, experts in the field of preventing human trafficking reported to the United Nations that they were alarmed by claims of alleged organ trafficking targeting minorities, including Christians, people who practiced the Falun Gong religion, Uyghurs, Muslims, and Tibetans. The experts reported that religious minorities were forced to take part in medical procedures such as ultrasounds and x-rays whereas other prisoners were not required to take part in these procedures. “Forced organ harvesting in China appears to be targeting specific ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities held in detention, often without being explained the reasons for arrest or given arrest warrants, at different locations,” the report said. They went on to say that, according to what a credible source had told them, the most common organs being removed were hearts, kidneys, livers, corneas, and parts of livers. The Chinese government does not keep data on how many of these procedures are done which makes it hard to protect the victims of this heinous crime. “Despite the gradual development of a voluntary organ donation system, information continues to emerge regarding serious human rights violations in the procurement of organs for transplants in China,” the United Nations experts said.
Countries across the world have begun to take note of this atrocity occurring in China. The UN urges China to respond to these allegations but the Chinese government has continued to be silent. In the United States, the Department of State has released fact sheets about the dangers of buying organs on the black market. In 1984, the United States passed the National Organ Transplant Act. The National Organ Transplant Act is legislation that makes it illegal to buy and sell human organs and tissues. In recent years the state of Texas has taken further steps to ensure organs are not illegally being bought and sold by passing S.B 1040. This bill, passed by the 87th Legislature of Texas in June 2023, prohibits health benefit plan issuers from covering human organ transplants performed or sold in countries known for forced organ harvesting. If all states and countries followed Texas’ example and outlawed health benefit plan issuers from covering human organ transplants performed or sold in countries known for forced organ harvesting, the demand for illegally transplanted organs would decrease.
The definition of communism is “a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.” While China is no longer financially communist, the Chinese Communist Party, or the CCP for short, is the ruling party of China. Due to the fact that there are no checks and balances, the CCP has the power to control the entire country and tends to hide human rights issues from the public view. Another example of a situation the CCP is currently trying to hide from public view is the re-education camps the government has created to detain Uyghur Muslims, a religious minority of Turkish descent. While the Chinese government has stated that they ended the re-education camps in 2019, journalists have been able to use drones and satellite images to prove that more and more re-education buildings have been built. Human rights abuses are a result of what happens when religious freedom is not tolerated by a nation’s ruling party. Almost all Chinese organ harvesting victims are in prison due to their religious beliefs. The CCP has participated in the systematic dehumanization of minorities by forcing them onto concentration camps and cutting their bodies open for a profit. The Gospel, on the other hand, says that every person on earth is loved and created by God for a valuable purpose. If I was the US Secretary of State tasked with advising the President, I would use my knowledge of the Gospel to reinforce the crucial belief that every life is worthy of dignity and respect by encouraging the President to make an Executive Order saying that illegally harvested organs are not covered by any American health care plan. Putting an end to the horror that is organ harvesting in the US reinforces the belief that all human beings are worthy of respect. Stopping the distribution of illegally harvested organs in the US, one of the richest and most powerful countries in the world, would be a sign to China that organ harvesting is immoral and must be brought to an end. Communism occurs when a country wants as much money as possible at the expense of its citizens and the doing away with forced organ harvesting shows China why it is important to prioritize human rights over financial gain. In addition, I would advise the President to tour a re-education camp and meet with Chinese leaders to persuade them to stop the re-education camps because all people are worthy of respect.
I hope that China will keep its status as a prosperous and unique country but lose its prolific human rights problems. China is a beautiful nation with architectural marvels, one-of-a-kind food, and intriguing cities to walk through. All Chinese people should be able to freely enjoy their country without being in constant fear of their ruthless government.