House Passes Bipartisan Bill To Fight Chinese ‘State-Sponsored Forced Organ Harvesting’

The U.S. House of Representatives decisively passed bipartisan legislation Monday to crack down on the Chinese organ harvesting industry.

In a 412-2 vote, the House approved H.R. 1154, the Stopped Forced Organ Harvesting Act, which would sanction those involved in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) state-sponsored harvesting of human organs. Chinese ethnic minorities, such as the Uyghurs and the Falun Dafa, have been targeted in organ harvesting, according to the bill and previous testimony.

“State-sponsored forced organ harvesting is big business for Xi and the Chinese Communist Party and shows absolutely no signs of abating,” Republican New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith said while debating the bill on the House floor.

Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie were the only two members of Congress to vote against the bill. Massie was the lone dissenting vote on a similar bill in 2019, saying in a tweet at the time, “When our government meddles in the internal affairs of foreign countries, it invites those governments to meddle in our affairs.”

The bill, introduced by Smith, Republican Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Bill Keating and Democratic North Carolina Rep. Kathy Manning, would impose sanctions such as imprisonment for up to 20 years, fines up to $1 million and a ban from buying property or obtaining visas on anyone that the president determines to fund, sponsor or in any way facilitate forced organ harvesting or trafficking for the removal of organs.

The bill will also amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1969, which established that no aid could be sent to countries that violate established international human rights, to require reports on forced human organ harvesting and trafficking in foreign countries.

The Uyghurs and the Falun Gong have been sent to Chinese internment camps and have lived under genocide threats. Last year, Ethan Gutmann, a senior fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, told Congress at a hearing led by Smith that China’s detained ethnic minority prisoners are targeted for organ harvesting yearly.

“Ethnic groups targeted for mass harvesting include Uyghurs, who suffer from Xi Jinping’s ongoing genocide and the Falun Gong, whose peaceful meditation and exercise practices and exceptional good health make their organs highly desirable,” Smith said.

The bill has the backing of the Campaign for Uyghurs, the Uyghur American Association, Victims of Communism, the Falun Dafa Association of Washington DC, Friends of Falun Gong and the Uyghur Human Rights Project, according to a press release.

The legislation will next have to pass through the Senate and then must receive President Joe Biden’s signature before it can be enacted into law.

Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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