Two lawmakers are reintroducing a bicameral bill to impose sanctions on Beijing’s systematic forced organ harvesting targeting the persecuted faith group Falun Gong.
The Falun Gong Protection Act would mandate sanctions on anyone the U.S. president deems as a knowing participant or facilitator of the abuse. Such individuals would be barred from entering the United States or transacting with U.S. individuals, with their U.S. property blocked and current visas revoked.
Violators face a potential civil fine of $250,000 or a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison.
The act would also make it U.S. policy to avoid cooperation with China in the organ transplant sector as long as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) remains in power; to work with allies and multilateral institutions to highlight the persecution of Falun Gong; and to coordinate with the international community on targeted sanctions and visa restrictions.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) are co-introducing the bill to their respective chambers.
“China’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is an attack on religious freedom and human rights,” Cruz told The Epoch Times before bringing the bill back to the Senate with cosponsors Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).
“It’s long past time to dismantle the CCP’s state-sponsored organ harvesting industry,” he continued, adding that he hopes his colleagues will join him in countering the abuses and “ensuring the CCP is held accountable.”
Perry echoed him, telling The Epoch Times that the “CCP and its enablers must be held accountable for these atrocities.”
“The United States, as the beacon of freedom around the world, cannot be silent when the Chinese Communist Party is engaged in systemic torturing, incarceration, and forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners,” he said.
The action marks the latest effort from U.S. lawmakers to stop the grisly acts that the U.S. Congress unanimously censured nearly a decade ago. A version of the legislation passed the House last June but stalled in the Senate.
The bill directs the U.S. president to submit a list of perpetrators of forced organ harvesting to the relevant congressional committees within half a year of the bill’s enactment and update the list annually.
Under the act, the secretary of state would work with the heads of the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health on a report on China’s organ transplant policies and practices for the relevant congressional committees.
Their report would cover how those policies apply to prisoners of conscience, including Falun Gong practitioners. It would also assess the annual number of organ transplant surgeries in the country and how the organs are sourced, including voluntary donations.
While it often takes years to obtain an organ for transplant in Western countries with developed organ donation systems, wait times in China can be as short as days, attracting patients to the country for surgeries. The act would require the secretary and department heads to assess whether the timetable for obtaining an organ in China is realistic.
Their investigation would also draw up a list of grants the United States has awarded over the previous decade supporting research on Chinese organ transplantation or collaboration with Chinese entities on the subject. Additionally, they would be required to determine, based on the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018, whether the Chinese regime’s persecution of Falun Gong constitutes an “atrocity.”
The Chinese regime views Falun Gong, a meditation discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, as a major target for elimination.
Since 1999, when the CCP began to persecute the spiritual practice, its practitioners have reported constant harassment, arrests, and torture in prison.
In 2019, following an investigation, the independent China Tribunal concluded that Falun Gong practitioners made up a major portion of the organ supply for the Chinese regime’s forced organ harvesting program. The tribunal said forced organ harvesting had taken place “for years throughout China on a significant scale.”
Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) said he’s proud to co-lead the House version of the act.
“We must do everything in our power to hold CCP malign actors and organ traffickers accountable for their unspeakable crimes,” he told The Epoch Times.
He said the bipartisan legislation is “a huge step toward that,” and he will “continue to speak out unwaveringly against the restriction of human rights and the persecution of religious groups, wherever they occur.
Three U.S. states, including Cruz’s home state, have adopted laws to restrict complicity in the abuse by restricting health insurance coverage for organ transplant surgeries connected with China.
Arizona is also currently pushing for similar legislation.
