Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) responded to Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hot mic discussion regarding organ transplants and “immortality,” underscoring the urgency of immediate U.S. action to halt the gruesome practice of forced organ harvesting. Smith serves as Co-Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission China (CECC) and a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

                According to reporting by Reuters, while walking side-by-side, Putin and Xi casually discussed organ transplants and their health benefits, with Putin’s translator saying in Chinese, “Human organs can be continuously transplanted. The longer you live, the younger you become, and (you can) even achieve immortality.”

                A translator for Xi replied in Russian, “Some predict that in this century humans may live to 150 years old.”

                “The casual, almost anecdotal nature of Xi and Putin’s conversation about organ transplants underscores the need for the United States to act staunchly and swiftly to investigate and end the barbaric practice of forced organ harvesting once and for all,” Smith declared.

                “This insidious conversation should be a striking wake-up call,” Smith noted. “To my colleagues in the Senate—the United States must act fast, and we must act decisively.”

                To openly condemn and combat these atrocity crimes, Smith has authored numerous pieces of legislation that would enable the United States to severely punish organ harvesters and prevent forced organ extractions before they occur.

                “My Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023 and my Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025 overwhelmingly passed the House with strong bipartisan support—the 2023 bill passed the House by a margin of 413 to 2 in March of 2023, and the 2025 iteration cleared the House by a margin of 406 to 1 in May of 2025,” added the senior lawmaker and China policy expert.

                “The inhumane, horrific practice of forced organ harvesting—which involves the involuntary extraction of between two-to-six internal organs per victim—is murder masquerading as medicine.

                “For nearly three decades—since my first congressional hearing on the matter in 1998—I have been sounding the alarm on the practice of forced organ harvesting, especially in China,” said Smith, who has chaired more than 107 congressional hearings on human rights abuses in China and three separate hearings—in 2012, 2022, and 2024—on forced organ harvesting.

                On the House Floor this past May, Smith outlined the main provisions of his Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025, which, when enacted, will:

·         Amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to require the imposition of serious sanctions on any person the President determines funds, sponsors or otherwise facilitates forced organ harvesting or trafficking for purposes of the removal of organs;

·         Require comprehensive reports on forced organ harvesting and trafficking in persons for purposes of the removal of organs in foreign countries, including and especially in China;

·         Require civil penalties up to $250,000 and criminal penalties including a fine of up to $1 million and imprisonment for not more than 20 years or both; and

·         Impose sanctions, including blocking and prohibiting all transactions in property and interests in property and making such persons inadmissible to the United States and ineligible to receive a visa.

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Contact:
Teagan Gambert (202) 225-3765
http://chrissmith.house.gov