Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) has called on the Senate to quickly approve his proposed legislation targeting forced organ harvesting, following a widely reported conversation between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The exchange, caught on a hot microphone, involved discussions about organ transplants and the idea of extending human life.

              According to Reuters, as Xi and Putin walked together, Putin’s translator commented in Chinese: “Human organs can be continuously transplanted. The longer you live, the younger you become, and (you can) even achieve immortality.” Xi’s translator replied in Russian: “Some predict that in this century humans may live to 150 years old.”

              Smith serves as Co-Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission China (CECC) and is also a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He said these remarks highlight an urgent need for U.S. action against forced organ harvesting.

              “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 stated.

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

              Smith has authored several bills aimed at punishing those involved in forced organ harvesting. His Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023 passed the House with bipartisan support by a vote of 413 to 2 in March 2023. A similar bill passed again in May 2025 by a margin of 406 to 1.

              “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,” Smith said.

              He described forced organ harvesting as “the involuntary extraction of between two-to-six internal organs per victim” which he called “murder masquerading as medicine.” Smith noted that he has been addressing this issue since his first congressional hearing on it in 1998. He has chaired over one hundred hearings on human rights abuses related to China—including three specifically focused on forced organ harvesting since 2012.

              On the House floor this past May, Smith outlined key points from his Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025:

              - The law would amend existing foreign assistance policy so that sanctions could be imposed on anyone funding or facilitating forced organ trafficking.

              - It would require regular reports about global forced organ trafficking activities—particularly concerning China.

              - Civil penalties could reach $250,000; criminal penalties could include fines up to $1 million or up to twenty years imprisonment.

              - Sanctions would also bar offenders from entering or doing business with interests inside the United States.

              Chris Smith is currently serving as U.S. Representative for New Jersey’s fourth district—a position he has held since succeeding Frank Thompson in Congress in 1981. Born in Rahway, New Jersey, Smith is now seventy years old and resides in Manchester Township. He graduated from The College of New Jersey with a bachelor’s degree earned in 1975.