Name: Tormented Chinese Doctor Recounts Live Organ Harvesting
Uploaded: 2024-07-11T05:17:54.000Z
Description: Reports of surgeons-turned-executioners in China are nothing new. But it's the first time a Chinese doctor is stepping forward with his real name to tell a deeply personal narrative, accompanied by profound horror.

NTD Newsroom comprises teams of reporters, editors, and producers assigned to cover breaking news and other stories.


NTD Newsroom

NTD Plus

News

Fast, compelling, first-hand news from China. China in Focus airs Monday–Friday at 9:30 p.m. ET.

China in Focus

Pentagon Seeks Funding for China Deterrence Strategy

EU Warns Economic Relationship With China Is 'Not Sustainable'

Vivian Li is a producer and reporter based at NTD’s global headquarters in New York City. With more than a decade of experience as a reporter and anchor for NTD’s Chinese-language division, she now primarily contributes to NTD’s English-language program China in Focus.

Vivian Li

Pentagon Chief Attends Asia Security Summit Amid China-Taiwan Tensions

Mary Man is a writer for NTD. She has traveled around the world covering China, international news, and arts and culture.

Mary Man

China News

Canadian Warship Transits Taiwan Strait Ahead of Landmark Chinese Foreign Minister's Visit

Juliet Song is an international correspondent exclusively covering China news for NTD. She primarily contributes to NTD's "China in Focus," covering U.S.-China relations, the Chinese regime's human rights abuses, and domestic unrest inside China.

Juliet Song

Trump Opposes Iran Uranium Transfer to China

Tiffany Meier is an anchor, China news investigative reporter, and producer for NTD News based at the network's global headquarters in New York City. Tiffany anchors NTD's flagship shows "NTD Evening News" and "China in Focus" and co-moderates NTD's special election coverage "The Nation Decides." She produced the award-winning NTD Original documentary "Hollywood Takeover: China's Control in the Film Industry."


Tiffany Meier

Japan, Philippines Elevate Ties, Send Message to China: Newsham

Lex Fridman China Trip Goes Viral Over Spy Jokes

US to Seek Public Comments on Chinese Goods Eligible for Tariff Cuts

Japan Tracks Chinese Carrier Group Featuring New Type 054B Frigate in Western Pacific

Taiwan Leader Gifts Trump a Special Book at AIT Gala

China in Focus Full Broadcast (May 29)

China in Focus Full Broadcast (May 28)

China in Focus Full Broadcast (May 27)

China in Focus Full Broadcast (May 26)

China in Focus Full Broadcast (May 25)

China in Focus Full Broadcast (May 22)

China in Focus Full Broadcast (May 21)

China in Focus Full Broadcast (May 20)

China in Focus Full Broadcast (May 19)

China in Focus Full Broadcast (May 18)

The Associated Press is an American not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. 

The Associated Press

US News

State News

California

More Than 17,000 Under Evacuation Orders as Southern California Wildfire Threatens Homes

Joseph Lord is a congressional reporter for The Epoch Times.


Joseph Lord

Aldgra Fredly is a freelance writer covering U.S. and Asia Pacific news for The Epoch Times.

Aldgra Fredly

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani Hospitalized in Critical Condition: Spokesman

Rudy Blalock is a Southern California-based daily news reporter for NTD. Originally from Michigan, he moved to California in 2017 and the sunshine and ocean have kept him here since. In his free time, he may be found underwater scuba diving, on top of a mountain hiking or snowboarding, or at home meditating—which helps fuel his active lifestyle.

Rudy Blalock

40,000 Ordered to Evacuate as Chemical Tank Leaks, Threatens Explosion in California

Video of US Fighter Jet Shooting Down UFO Over Lake Huron Emerges in New Pentagon Files

Ryan Morgan is a reporter for The Epoch Times focusing on military and foreign affairs. He was previously a news writer for NTD. 


Ryan Morgan

Mari Otsu is NTD's White House correspondent based in Washington. 

Mari Otsu

World News

Middle East

Iran

3 US Warships Fend Off Iranian Attacks, Trump Says Ceasefire Still Holds

News you can trust from the U.S. and around the world. Critical information and insight. We cover the stories that others don’t. NTD News Today airs Monday–Friday at 11 a.m. ET.

NTD News Today

US Government Sues Chick-fil-A Over Religious Rights

Health News

3 Dead in Suspected Hantavirus Outbreak on Cruise Ship in Atlantic Ocean: WHO

Sports News

Kyle Busch, Two-Time NASCAR Champion, Dies at 41

Haika Mrema

Medical Plane Crash in New Mexico Mountains Kills 4, Sparks Wildfire

Daniel Monaghan is a reporter for NTD News covering culture, social issues, and education. He holds a BA in Political Science and Government.

Daniel Monaghan

California Mayor Resigns, Will Plead Guilty to Acting as Chinese Agent

Label

Live

NTD+ Live

NYC Firm Hosts Book Party on Investing in Critical Minerals Beyond Beijing’s Reach

'Mineral War' Author on China's Rise, Global Response

China’s Long Arm on American Soil

Special Reports

Global Trade Under the Shadow of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre

How Americans View China and Chinese ‘Elections’: Special Report

Countering Communism in US With Memorial for Its Victims

US Funding Chinese Communist Party Economic Growth: Experts

China's Artistic Censorship Aimed at Americans: Browde

Taiwan 2024 Special Election Coverage: China in Focus

Expert: Why Social Media Apps Are 'Legal Malware'

Reports of surgeons-turned-executioners in China are nothing new. But it's the first time a Chinese doctor is stepping forward with his real name to tell a deeply personal narrative, accompanied by profound horror.

Zheng Zhi, a then-resident doctor at one of China's largest military hospitals, recounted how he witnessed a man's kidneys and eyes being carved out for transplant—while he was still alive. Now, he's shedding light on the horrifying forced organ harvesting industry in China.

"I was ordered to take one of his eyeballs by the soldier on the other side, and the nurse handed me a hemostat. I really couldn't stand it, and I said 'I can't do it, I can't,'" Dr. Zheng said.

The horror he witnessed took place in 1994 inside a van guarded by armed soldiers, and staffed with five surgeons and nurses. He thought they were on a "secret military mission" near a prison around China's northeastern Dalian city.

But what followed has stayed with him for decades.

"I looked at him, he was looking right at me. This man at my feet [during the operation], he was really looking at me, his eyes were moving."

Dr. Zheng says the man was no more than 18 years old. Carried into the van by four soldiers, his limbs tightly bound by ropes. A doctor first sliced open the man's stomach, and two others extracted a kidney each.

The man's legs twitched, his throat moved, but no sound came out. Then a doctor instructed Dr. Zheng to "step on" the man's legs and "don't let him move."

"As I pressed down, his still-warm body made me think he was alive. A surgeon took a scalpel and made a large incision directly under the xiphoid into the umbilical cord. When the abdomen opened, the intestines came out, and I was really terrified. Another surgeon pushed the intestines aside and retrieved a kidney. Then another got the second kidney. The head nurse swiftly placed both kidneys in a temperature-controlled box," Dr. Zheng said.

Next, Dr. Zheng got the order to extract the man's eyes, but he was too sickened to do so. Another doctor swiftly carried out the procedure instead.

The now motionless body was then placed in a black plastic bag and carried away by soldiers.

The organs were taken to the General Hospital of the Shen-yang Military Region, where Dr. Zheng did his residency. A team waiting there then used the organs in transplant operations.

By then, the procedure was long over. But for Dr. Zheng, the haunting image of those desperate, fearful, and pained eyes plagued him.

"At dinner the previous evening [before the operation], an officer introduced the boy, who was less than 18 years old. His parents paid 10,000 yuan to get him an army spot. Through the window, I looked at the gun-wielding soldiers, guarding this heinous act. No military in the world would plunder and sell its own soldiers' organs. My ambition as a military doctor was to save lives and serve my nation, but I couldn't fathom the depth of my country's atrocities."

Soon after the horrific event, Dr. Zheng left the hospital.

"This incident had a great impact on me at that time. After that, I rarely spoke, and I didn't like social interactions," he said.

But little did he know, what happened in that van in 1994 would soon become an industrialized killing apparatus in China, set up to extract organs from prisoners of conscience and sell them on demand.

Within two decades, the mass-scale, state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting ballooned into a billion-dollar industry.

In the 2020 China Tribunal Judgment, it's said "Falun Gong practitioners have been one—and probably the main—source of organ supply."

"They don't consent. They don't even know what's happening...we call it a cold genocide in the sense that it's not happening all at once it's happening slowly over time," said David Matas, an international human rights lawyer and one of the world's leading researchers of forced organ harvesting.

In 2002, while accompanying a military official for a medical check-up, Dr. Zheng first learned that Falun Gong adherents were used as an organ source.

Doctors at the hospital where Dr. Zheng once interned told the official that he needed a new kidney to survive.

"'Shenyang Army General Hospital will pick a top-quality one for you, a fresh one, from Falun Gong practitioners.' I told him, 'Don’t do it, isn’t that committing a murder?' He nodded to me and said, 'I am not going to get this kidney transplant.' But he suddenly said to me in a particularly stern manner, 'You should leave as soon as possible, and the farther the better.' I realized I might be 'silenced' if the story got out."

Another acquaintance, an aide to officials at the core of China's most elite leadership body, told Dr. Zheng something even more shocking.

"During [his] visit, I said the persecution of Falun Gong in northeastern China was quite severe. He seemed attentive but stayed silent. But before we parted, he suddenly told me that Falun Gong practitioners, including minors, were held beneath the Hubei Provincial Public Security Bureau's backyard in Wuhan City. He said he had been there. Then he left abruptly. At that moment, I said to myself: 'I must go abroad!'"

Dr. Zheng added that to boost transplant profits, the military set up "green passages" at airports to aid the swift transportation of organs across the nation.

He also said infectious disease units inside military hospitals had all become "dens" for forced organ harvesting.

To avoid citizens becoming complicit, U.S. lawmakers have taken steps to prevent Americans from engaging in "transplant tourism" to China.

But Mr. Matas says the killing of prisoners of conscience for their organs is still ongoing.

"They're continuing to add advertise transplant tourism, and the institutions are still functioning. I mean, they haven't closed on these transplant hospitals," he said.

Dr. Zheng obtained refugee status while in Thailand, and moved to Canada in 2007. He said he's been looking for the right media outlet to share his story because should he make the wrong choice, not only would he get himself into trouble, the issue wouldn't get the spotlight it needs.

He acknowledged the concern of potential retaliation from Beijing, but said the issue is bigger than himself.

"I want to speak publicly—the Chinese Communist Party is slaughtering Chinese people, harvesting their organs, and selling them for money. This is a crime, and it is intolerable to mankind."

He said that he has carefully preserved his records, and that when the Chinese Communist Party falls and faces judgment, he will take the witness stand—adding that "justice will prevail."

Latest

Programs

china

Videos

01_Lead Story

04_Top Stories

Latest Clips

Management

02_Second Lead

Organ Harvesting in China

Latest and breaking news, documentaries, movies, and lifestyle content on NTD+.
 
Empower your knowledge and elevate your spirit with NTD+, your go-to destination for truthful news, insightful documentaries, and captivating lifestyle content that enriches your life.