Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend and colleague ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN for yielding. I want to thank the chairman emeritus of the full Foreign Affairs Committee for the defense of vulnerable persons in China, especially the Falun Gong, men and women who cannot speak for themselves, who have suffered unspeakable torture—some have survived—and to the families who have lost loved ones in Chinese prison camps, the Laogai, and detention centers that are sprinkled throughout all of China.

     This legislation is an important step in bringing accountability and transparency to what may be one of the great crimes of the 21st century: the 17- year effort to eliminate Falun Gong practice from China. I strongly believe that the campaign to eradicate Falun Gong will be seen as one of the great horrors.

     The Chinese Government continues to insist that the accounts of religious persecution, forced abortion, arbitrary detention, and organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners are mere rumors. They refuse to even discuss these issues in regular diplomatic dialogue and regularly jail and disbar lawyers who try to defend Falun Gong practitioners who expose the abuses that are committed by government employees. Nevertheless, evidence is quickly mounting of the horrific crimes committed against Falun Gong practitioners, including this terrible practice of organ harvesting.

     Over the years, Congress has received credible information about this unethical and corrupt organ transplant system that operates in China. The Chinese Government is at least grossly negligent but, more likely, grossly complicit in these crimes because huge amounts of money are made.

     We have received credible evidence that the actual number of organ transplants by China’s hospitals remain underreported and that, despite the Chinese Government’s promises to the contrary, the number of prisoners who are killed and have their organs taken continues to rise.

     Shockingly, researchers David Kilgour, David Matas, and Ethan Gutmann conducted detailed investigations and estimated that between 45,000 and 65,000 Falun Gong practitioners were killed for their organs, which then were sold for profit—45,000 to 65,000 victims who had their organs stolen and their lives snuffed out by the Chinese Government officials.

     There might be new estimates that are higher. These researchers will unveil their new findings next week at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

     Let me remind Members that the United States Congress isn’t the only one that is bringing this terrible human rights abuse up. The U.N. Committee Against Torture and the Special Rapporteur on torture have expressed concern over these allegations, and they have called for accountability and transparency.

     The ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN resolution condemns this practice; calls on the government to end it; demands an immediate end to the 17-year persecution of the Falun Gong; encourages the United States medical community to help raise awareness of unethical organ transplant practices in China; calls on the People’s Republic of China to allow a credible, transparent, and independent investigation into organ transplant abuses; and then calls on the U.S. Department of State to conduct a more detailed analysis on state-sanctioned organ harvesting from nonconsenting prisoners of conscience in its annual human rights report. And it also calls on the government, our government, to bar provision of visas, pursuant to current law, to Chinese and other nationals engaged in coerced organ or bodily tissue transplantation.

     Again, I want to thank ILEANA ROSLEHTINEN and Mr. CONNOLLY for their leadership on this.