Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) has raised concerns following a recent conversation between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin about the possibility of extending life through organ transplants. The exchange, which was caught on a hot mic as the two leaders walked up the Tiananmen Gate for a military parade in Beijing on September 3, referenced living to 150 years of age with continued organ transplants.
Smith, who serves as co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and monitors human rights abuses abroad, found the remarks troubling given longstanding allegations of forced organ harvesting in China. “It shows how cruelty knows no bounds,” Smith told The Epoch Times.
The conversation between Xi and Putin suggested that top political figures in China have access to an abundance of organs—privileges not available to ordinary citizens. Independent investigations, including those by the London-based China Tribunal, have reported that forced organ harvesting is widespread in China, often targeting prisoners of conscience such as Falun Gong practitioners.
Chinese media outlets reportedly attempted to suppress coverage of the incident by removing or altering videos containing the exchange. However, Putin later confirmed their discussion about medical advances and organ transplantation at a press conference.
“What came across in these remarks seems to be, ‘I don’t care,’” said Smith. He added that China’s centralized power structure enables such practices and accused officials at all levels of seeking organs through coercion or worse. “My own argument has been that from Xi Jinping on down, anybody in the higher echelon, especially in the Chinese Communist Party, will look to steal somebody else’s internal organs, through coercion, through death, to extend their life. I can’t think of a more selfish and barbaric act to do that,” Smith said.
“They’re so brazen about abusing other people for their own will and for their own longevity,” he added.
Smith commented that voluntary organ transplantation is ethical but claimed there is “nothing voluntary about this” when it comes to alleged abuses linked to high-level officials.
Smith first became aware of reports regarding Chinese authorities taking organs from executed prisoners around 1998. Since then, he says the industry has grown significantly alongside increased persecution against groups like Falun Gong since 1999. Hospitals in China have reportedly advertised short waiting times for transplant procedures—a sharp contrast with countries where donors are scarce—which some attribute to state-sanctioned sourcing methods.
According to Smith: “They go and they kill somebody who matches up with your antigens and everything else… I’ve never seen anything like it except in Nazi Germany.” He described this as “a genocide against the Falun Gong” and compared it with alleged abuses against Uyghurs.
“There’s no way—let me say it again—no way on Earth that I would want somebody else’s organs through coercion to extend my life if I ever needed them,” Smith said.
He also contrasted his experience being treated by doctors in the United States with what he alleges occurs under state orders in China: “Everybody here is trying to make my life better… whereas in China doctors could become an ‘oppressor,’ ‘stealing your organs’ under state order.”
“For such cruelty,” Smith said, “the regime’s leader should be at The Hague for crimes against humanity rather than being lifted up with big parades.”
Five U.S. states have enacted laws prohibiting health insurance coverage for organ transplants linked to China. Smith leads efforts behind bipartisan legislation known as the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act aimed at penalizing those involved in forced organ harvesting or trafficking schemes; this bill passed overwhelmingly (406–1) in the House earlier this year. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) recently stated that revelations surrounding these issues should bring urgency for legislative action addressing alleged abuses tied to China’s transplant system.
Smith called on Senate lawmakers: “Why the delay?”
Chris Smith currently represents New Jersey’s 4th district in Congress after replacing Frank Thompson in 1981 (https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/S000522). He was born in Rahway, New Jersey; now aged 70 and residing in Manchester Township; he graduated from The College of New Jersey with a Bachelor of Science degree.
