This upcoming Sunday, the people of Venezuela will hold an election that, if legitimate, would put an end to years of the oppressive Maduro narco-regime. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) issued a statement in support of the Venezuelan people: “The...
News
Latest News
Rubio: “La Tenacidad y Valentía del Pueblo venezolano Estarán a la Vista”
Este próximo domingo, el pueblo venezolano tendrá una elección que, de ser legítima, pondría fin a años de opresión por parte del narco-régimen de Maduro. El senador estadounidense Marco Rubio (R-FL) grabó un mensaje de video en español y emitió una declaración en...
Rubio, Scott, Colleagues to Biden Admin: No Privileges Should Be Given to 9/11 Terrorist
Twenty-three years ago, the United States was attacked by Islamic terrorists on September 11, 2001. Now, Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in a U.S. court for his role in the attack, has requested the U.S. Department of Justice to allow a prisoner transfer...
Next Week: Rubio Staff Hosts Mobile Office Hours
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) office will host virtual Mobile Office Hours next week to assist constituents with federal casework issues in their respective local communities. These office hours offer constituents who do not live close to one of Senator Rubio’s...
Rubio, Colleagues Introduce Ensuring Continuity in Veterans’ Health Act
As the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) opens up new facilities, many veterans are losing access to the VA’s Community Care Program and, consequently, their long-term healthcare providers. Veterans throughout the country have reported a loss of care, including...
Rubio Introduces Bill to Strengthen U.S.-India Security Partnership
The U.S.-India partnership is vital to countering influences from Communist China. In order to strengthen this partnership, it is essential to enhance our strategic diplomatic, economic, and military relationship with New Delhi. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)...
Rubio, Smith to Blinken: Halt Communist China’s Illegal Organ Trade
The U.S. State Department has funded programs to obtain information on the forced organ harvesting trade in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). However, the State Department has yet to use existing and available resources to their full potential.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and U.S. Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging him to use all available resources and to prioritize the disruption of this vicious and inhumane practice.
Joining Senator Rubio and Representative Smith were Representatives Jennifer Wexton (D-VA), Michelle Steel (R-CA), Zach Nunn (R-IA) and Ryan Zinke (R-MT).
- “Getting the PRC to account and fully address evidence of forced organ harvesting will be critical in ending this horrific practice and promoting, long term, the establishment of a truly voluntary organ donation system. With effective enforcement mechanisms, we can work towards ensuring organs are procured safely and ethically. We look forward to engaging you on this important matter.”
The full text of the letter is below.
Dear Secretary Blinken,
As commissioners of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), we request that you utilize U.S. State Department rewards programs to seek information that will ultimately hold those individuals engaged in the gruesome practice of human trafficking for the purpose of organ removal (forced organ harvesting) in the People’s Republic China (PRC) accountable. This effort would also disrupt and deter a lucrative market in illegally procured organs.
The United States Congress has appropriated funding for various State Department programs that provide rewards for actionable information on terrorism, atrocities, and transnational crime. These may be used to gain information on individuals complicit in “crimes against humanity” and “severe forms of human trafficking in persons.” There has been no effort to seek evidence on individuals complicit in forced organ harvesting or the organ trafficking industry using these funds, despite the impressive amount of testimony amassed by the Independent People’s Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China in its March 2020 final judgment. The Tribunal concluded that the PRC’s estimated $1 billion organ trafficking industry harvests organs from executed prisoners and political prisoners, at an industrial scale, actions it concluded constitute crimes against humanity.
In response to the Tribunal’s findings, 12 United Nations Special Procedures mandate holders said they were “extremely alarmed” by credible reports that suggest forced organ harvesting in China is “targeting specific ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities” who are detained across the country, including Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims, Christians, and Falun Gong practitioners. In 2022, the American Journal of Transplantation published a peer-reviewed article that demonstrated Chinese surgeons sometimes served as executioners, harvesting organs from prisoners who had not been declared brain dead. This violates the internationally accepted “dead-donor” rule that states organ procurement “must not commence until the donor is both dead and formally pronounced so.” Forced organ harvesting is an atrocity and the disruption and deterrence of this practice should be a priority of the State Department.
We strongly support the Department of State’s efforts to issue rewards for wildlife and narcotics trafficking in the PRC. However, given the global demand for organ transplants and the evidence of the illegal trafficking of organs in the PRC, there is a pressing need to uncover first-hand information from those who witnessed or engaged in the practice.
Getting the PRC to account and fully address evidence of forced organ harvesting will be critical in ending this horrific practice and promoting, long term, the establishment of a truly voluntary organ donation system. With effective enforcement mechanisms, we can work towards ensuring organs are procured safely and ethically. We look forward to engaging you on this important matter.
Sincerely,