First Known Survivor of China’s Forced Organ Harvesting Speaks Out

In a chilling revelation that underscores the ongoing atrocities committed under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Mr. Cheng Pei Ming, the first known survivor of China’s state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting campaign, spoke to journalist Tasnim Nazeer for The Diplomat about his survival against the odds.

Cheng publicly shared his harrowing experience at a press conference in Washington, D.C., last month, exposing his story and the ongoing forced organ harvesting that is taking place in China. 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.

A Brutal Ordeal

Cheng, who hails from a rural village in Shandong Province, was repeatedly detained and tortured between 1999 and 2004 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual practice rooted in Buddhist traditions. The Chinese Communist Party, which views Falun Gong as a threat to its authoritarian rule, has branded Falun Gong a dangerous cult and has systematically persecuted its adherents for decades.

Speaking from inside a car in Washington, D.C., Cheng told me, “One day in 2002, I was told to pack up and was suddenly transferred to Harbin Prison and later to Daqing Prison. It was there that I was tortured even more severely.”

Cheng recalled the escalating brutality he faced in detention. In a particularly harrowing episode, he was tortured to the point of losing consciousness.

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.

After hours of excruciating torture known as “the big stretch,” during which his limbs were painfully stretched from all corners, Cheng swallowed a small rusty nail and a blunt blade he had found in the torture room. Despite not showing immediate signs of ill health, he was forcibly taken to the hospital on November 16, 2004.

His family was informed that there was an 80 percent mortality rate associated with the operation, supposedly to remove the objects he had swallowed.

“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,” Cheng recounted. “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. ”

Cheng was shackled to a hospital bed, with an IV tube taped to his foot, a drainage tube in his left chest, oxygen tubes in his nose, and a 35 cm incision on the left side of his chest. Typically, the removal of ingested objects would be done via endoscopy, but Cheng had undergone open chest surgery.

“The doctors and several of the ‘610 Office’ officials were there,” he recalled. The 610 office is a notorious secretive and powerful organization within the CCP, tasked with implementing the crackdown on the Falun Gong.