Human Rights Lawyer: Former Central 610 Office Chief’s Downfall Signals Consequences of Organ Harvesting

(Minghui.org) Fu Zhenghua, former Central 610 Office director and Minister of Justice, was under investigation on October 2 for “serious violation of discipline and law.” The 610 Office is an extralegal agency given power to override the judicial system and direct the nationwide persecution against Falun Gong. Fu’s downfall indicates that key perpetrators in the suppression will face serious consequences, explained Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas in a recent interview. 

Matas is well known for investigating forced organ harvesting by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from Falun Gong practitioners. Together with other investigators, he has published several books, including Bloody Harvest and The Killing of Falun Gong for Their Organs. During the interview with a Minghui correspondent, he said the CCP’s organ harvesting is a cold genocide and the perpetrators will eventually be held accountable. 

Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas

The Rise and Fall of CCP Officials

Besides serving as the Central 610 Office chief (since 2015) and Minister of Justice (2018 – 2020), Fu had also severed other key positions, especially in the police system. They include Director of Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau (2010 – 2013) and Executive Deputy Minister of Public Security (2013 – 2018). Because of his heavy involvement in the persecution of Falun Gong, he was one of the officials reported by Falun Gong practitioners to 29 countries. 

Matas said that Fu is known to have directed the suppression of Falun Gong. In China, those “disciplinary” measures are often tied to corruption charges. But in China, “they [these measures] tend to be levied for political reasons against people who are on the political levels. It's just a way of the party manipulating control,” he explained, adding “the use of corruption by the disciplinary committee is basically just a political tool for manipulation in the power struggle.”

The investigation of Fu and other officials does not necessarily indicate the persecution of Falun Gong would stop, Matas continued. “Many of them [the officials] have used the persecution of Falun Gong as a device for escalating their status in the party, including Bo Xilai, including Zhou Yongkang,” he added, “That doesn’t mean that the people who are against them are opposed to the device they’ve used.” 

A Global Human Rights Violation

The illegal detention by the CCP not only happened to Chinese people, but also citizens from other countries. Right after Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was released, two Canadians illegally held by the CCP were released. Right now, there are still 115 Canadians detained in China, including Falun Gong practitioner Sun Qian. 

The fact that the CCP could kidnap people from a foreign country is “quite chilling,” commented Matas. Moreover, since the CCP has engaged in hostage diplomacy, it could happen again. 

Cold Genocide

Over the years, Matas has many publications on organ harvesting based on his investigation. “It is basically in a concept called genocide, it’s not something we invented. It exists in genocide literature. We just applied it to the Falun Gong situation,” he said. 

More specifically, “it is a genocide which doesn't happen briefly, quickly, visibly, but it happens slowly. And it's not all that visible. And the numbers accumulate over time rather than occur all at once,” he explained. 

The tragedy was able to happen partly due to the market. As the Chinese health system shifted to capitalism from socialism, the funding in the health system from the government dramatically decreased. “The medical institutions needed an extra source of funding to keep the doors open. They had been institutionally used to sourcing organs from prisoners for transplants, because they were using death penalty prisoners. But the death penalty was decreasing,” Matas explained. “They [then] had the Falun Gong population that was... was indefinite, that was demonized. And the system of sourcing organs from prisoners was already institutionalized. So they just kind of switch to another form.”

The CCP had killed prisoners of conscience before it did so with Falun Gong practitioners, although the numbers were much smaller. The Uygurs are one example, Matas said. Over time, the organ harvesting numbers went up to 60,000 or 100,000 a year. Eventually, it mounted to a high number. “When you're dealing with 50,000 to 100,000 organs a year, now that's not persons, that's organs,” he continued. In fact, it is both genocide of life and genocide of intent. He said both types of genocide were there because “they [the CCP] obviously wanted to get rid of Falun Gong.”

Magnitsky Act

Matas said we must to do anything we can to stop the horror of organ harvesting. “I would say [we] do everything, do everything that's possible,” he explained. 

This includes the Magnitsky Act, measures in the United Nations, Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs, and civil remedies. Another approach is transplant registry, which would prevent organ harvesting from happening. 

“Israel and Taiwan have started to do something on this, but we're still far from that,” Matas said. “There is a wide list of things that can be done, and I think they all should be done.”