Virtual Event | The Olympics Boycott Series – Part 4: Organ Harvesting as an Instrument of Religious Repression

This event will premiere on this page at 12:00 p.m. EST, Thursday, February 17. Register for the event here

The Winter Olympic Games in Beijing are taking place against the backdrop of an ongoing genocide of China’s Uyghur Muslim minority—prompting countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia to announce diplomatic boycotts of the games. Hosting the Olympic Games is a golden propaganda opportunity for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which publicly presents a cheerful, confident façade while suppressing any hint that its ethnic Muslims and other human rights victims are suffering egregious repression at its hands.

To keep the focus on the CCP’s systematic human rights abuses, Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom is marking the games with a series of four deep-dive discussions on genocide and religious repression with noted China experts. The series addresses the CCP’s responsibility for religious genocide against Xinjiang’s ethnic Muslims and abuses against various other religious minorities, its deceptive tactics to cover these up, and successful strategies to document evidence of repression in China’s strictly-controlled political environment.

In the final installment of Hudson’s “Olympics Boycott Series,” Nina Shea, director of Hudson’s Center for religious freedom, will sit down with David Kilgour and David Matas to discuss their research on the Chinese government’s horrifying practice of organ harvesting. Mr. Kilgour and Mr. Matas began writing about organ harvesting in China in their 2006 groundbreaking report, “Bloody Harvest.” Working with journalist Ethan Gutmann, they have continually updated their research over the past 15 years through several reports, a book, public testimony, and on their website. This series of research publications concerning the large numbers of detained Falun Gong practitioners whose organs have been sold in what Beijing boasts is the world’s largest organ-transplant market. Given the government’s declared intent to “eliminate” this group, could Beijing be carrying out a second genocide against the Falun Gong, in addition to the genocide against the Uyghur Muslims?