The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington on July 14, 2025.Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has called on the United States to sever ties with China’s transplantation system over ongoing concerns about organ sourcing.
“In China, forced organ harvesting of prisoners has continued for over 20 years. To affirm the sanctity of human life, America must sever its ties with China’s organ transplant system,” the department wrote in a post on X, pointing to an article published in The Baltimore Sun titled “America’s complicity in China’s organ harvesting.”
The HHS in July uncovered issues with a federally funded organization and identified more than 100 cases in the United States in which organ procurement occurred when patients showed signs of life or had no cardiac time marked down.
The “domestic scandal” is nonetheless “no isolated incident,” reads the commentary article, which points to the decades-long program of forced organ harvesting in China targeting prisoners of conscience.
In 2019, the independent China Tribunal concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that forced organ harvesting had taken place in China on a large scale, and practitioners of the spiritual discipline Falun Gong were the primary source. In its final report, issued in 2020, the tribunal said it believed the Chinese regime continued to harvest organs from unwilling prisoners of conscience, as there was no evidence that the abuses had stopped.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Its practitioners have been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
The HHS flagged the issue of organ harvesting two days after the hot-mic comments of Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin brought global attention to China’s organ transplant system.
In the conversation, the two discussed reaching immortality through continued organ replacements, with Xi heard telling Putin: “Predictions are that in this century, there’s a chance of living to 150.”
The remarks sparked more alarm than the regime had expected, prompting Chinese state media to quickly remove clips containing the comments. The state broadcaster CCTV, through its lawyer, demanded that Reuters retract the video highlighting it, stating it had “resulted in a clear misrepresentation.”
A large screen shows Chinese leader Xi Jinping (C), Russian President Vladimir Putin (3rd L), North Korean leader Kim Jung Un (2nd R), and others arriving at a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II, in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Sept. 3, 2025. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
But the video had already been circulating outside of China.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), hearing about the incident in a news briefing on Sept. 3, said the exchange was “very telling.”
“I will tell you that we’ve heard some horrific stories of these organ transplants and all of this in China, that they take it from unwilling donors … to put it mildly,” he told NTD, sister media outlet of The Epoch Times.
“If the leaders are talking about it, it should alarm us.
“There’s legislation, as you know, that would address it, and we might need to put that at the top of the priority list, if that’s what’s happening.”
The House in May passed two bills that aim to counter the abuse through sanctions. Both are now waiting for a motion in the Senate.
