(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioner Cheng Peiming, who survived organ harvesting, recounted his experience at a press conference in Washington DC on August 9, 2024. His account was reported by several media outlets. Cheng Peiming was called a “typical victim” of the horrors of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) organ harvesting crimes.
Cheng Peiming, Falun Gong practitioner from Heilongjiang, (second right) recounted how his organs were removed without consent at a press conference held on August 9, 2024.
The Telegraph: First Known Survivor of China’s Forced Organ Harvesting
In the UK’s The Telegraph report written by Iona Cleave published on August 9, “A Chinese organ harvesting victim woke up chained to bed with parts of his liver and lung missing. Cheng Pei Ming tells of how he escaped from the hospital and fled China’s ‘unbearable’ torture.
“The first known survivor of China’s forced organ harvesting campaign against religious prisoners said he is now ready to speak out and expose the “evil” of the Chinese Communist Party.
“Cheng Pei Ming, 58, who spoke publicly for the first time in Washington on Friday, described how he still feels “extreme pain” 20 years after parts of his lung and liver were forcibly removed.
“I believed they would kill me. I’m not sure they thought I could survive, but I did,” Mr. Cheng told The Telegraph as he took off his shirt to expose a scar that wraps around his chest all the way to his back.
“Mr. Cheng says he was detained and tortured for years by the Chinese state for practicing Falun Gong.
“In the decades after Falun Gong was banned and its followers were persecuted, China’s organ transplantation industry exploded. Vital organs became readily available within a matter of days in state-run hospitals – a timeframe no national transplantation system elsewhere in the world has ever been able to achieve.
“In 2019, an independent tribunal in London ruled that the Chinese government continued to commit crimes against humanity by targeting minorities, including the Falun Gong movement, for organ harvesting.
“In 2021, UN human rights experts reported that along with Falun Gong practitioners, other minorities had been targeted, including Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims and Christians in detention in China.
“Mr. Cheng said he could not understand why they would crack down on a religion that promoted peace.
“Falun Gong teaches people to be good and to have compassion and empathy for all people. We mean no harm to society, the persecution against us should have never happened,” he said.
“Mr. Cheng was first arrested in September 1999. He said he was tortured and told to give up his faith and that when he refused he was expelled along with his family from his home in the eastern province of Shandong.
“In the years that followed, he was “kidnapped by the CCP” five times, each time suffering “unbearable” torture, he said.
“I remembered asking: ‘Why don’t you kill me instead?’ And they said: ‘It is too easy, we get great pleasure in torturing you’,” Mr. Cheng said.
“In 2002, he was sentenced to eight years in jail. He recalled seeing other Falun Gong inmates disappear. Some were sent to so-called “re-education” labour camps; others were tortured to death.
“In July 2004, Mr. Cheng said he was dragged into a hospital where agents from the CCP’s infamous 610 Office – dubbed “China’s gestapo” – tried to make him sign consent forms. When he refused, they knocked him down and put him to sleep.
“His family was told that he was undergoing surgery and had a 20 per cent chance of survival.
“Mr. Cheng woke up three days later, terrified, shackled to a bed, and with a 35cm incision across his chest. Transplant experts have since confirmed that scans show sections of Mr. Cheng’s liver and left lung were surgically removed.
“Two years later, prison guards took him back to hospital. “There was no reason for them to operate, so I understood I would be killed. My family was told I had swallowed knives and wasn’t likely to survive.”
“But an unexpected opportunity presented itself for escape. His guard had fallen asleep, so Mr. Cheng made a run for it.
For nine years, “I lived a life of escape and hiding under false names”, he said, adding that the CCP “wanted to find me and kill me to cover up what they had done”.
“He eventually escaped to Thailand where “I felt I could have been killed anytime”, Mr. Cheng said. He only felt safe once he reached US soil in 2020.
“In June, the US House passed The Falun Gong Protection Act, which aims to force an end to the persecution of Falun Gong by the CCP as well as forced organ harvesting from apprehended practitioners of the faith.
“Mr. Cheng still cannot feel parts of his chest, and he struggles on a daily basis with shocks of pain that ripple through his body.
“But he is now ready to tell his story. “I want the world to know how evil the CCP is. It does not only seek to harm people in China, but the world. I have to expose what has happened to the Falun Gong.”
“Dr. Charles Lee, a leading advocate for the Falun Gong movement, who himself was arrested and tortured for his beliefs by the CCP in 2003, told The Telegraph that the importance of Mr. Cheng’s testimony cannot be overstated.
“We heard reports for decades about the extremely inhuman treatment Falun Gong faced, those that were tortured to death, their bodies cut open and organs missing. But now we have the first live witness.”
“He added: “This should be an alarm to people and governments around the world that the CCP does not care for human lives.”
The Diplomat: A Glimpse into the Horrors Faced by Falun Gong
The Diplomat based in Washington DC reported on the atrocities experienced by Cheng Peiming in an article titled “First Known Survivor of China’s Forced Organ Harvesting Speaks Out” published on August 10.
“His testimony offered a rare and disturbing glimpse into the horrors faced by prisoners of conscience in China, particularly practitioners of Falun Gong.
“Cheng is said to be the only known survivor of China’s forced organ harvesting, and his testimony is unprecedented in exposing the hidden horrors of the brutal industry.
“Cheng was repeatedly detained and tortured between 1999 and 2004 for practicing Falun Gong. During his imprisonment, Cheng was subjected to forced blood tests– an ominous indicator of his organs’ viability for transplantation. ‘They did blood tests on me many times and subjected me to all kinds of inhumane torture,’ he noted.
“The torture in the prison was very systematic. One was mental and the other was physical [torture]. Mentally they put me and my family members under pressure as they wanted me to give up my faith in Falun Gong and if I didn’t they would force my wife to divorce me when I was in prison.” Cheng was told that if his wife did not divorce him she would face similar persecution as he was facing.
“I am one of the lucky ones – I survived. But there are countless others who did not. Their voices were silenced, but I will continue to speak for them. The world needs to know what is happening in China. This evil cannot be allowed to continue.”
Australia: News.Com.Au “Testimony is Incontestable Proof”
Australia’s News.com.au reported on August 9: “The first known survivor of China’s alleged forced organ harvesting says he had part of his lung and liver cut out.
“Cheng Pei Ming says he endured years of prison and torture for practising the Falun Gong religion against the will of the Chinese Communist Party.
“Rumours of organ harvesting by the Chinese government have swirled for years, with experts now saying Cheng is “incontestable” proof.
“The survivor has X-ray scans that show part of his organs were removed when he underwent the horror experience, The Sun reported.
“In 2002, Cheng was sentenced to eight years in prison.
“Cheng said: “After they took me to the hospital against my will, they tried to force me to sign consent forms for an operation.
“When I refused, six guards grabbed me and held me down and I was injected with something.
“The next thing I remember is being in a hospital bed with tubes in my nose and I was going in and out of consciousness.
“There was a tube with bloody liquid coming from under the bandaging that was on my side.”
“He woke up shackled to a hospital bed.
“Oxygen tubes were inserted in his nose and there was a fresh 35cm cut on the left side of his chest, with a drainage tube coming out of it.
“He was imprisoned two years later and was again booked in for forced surgery.
“He is seen by experts as a “typical victim” of China’s organ harvesting horror where Falun Gong practitioners are forcibly cut up - but he is also unique because he survived and was able to leave China.”
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