The legislation is aimed at curbing complicity in Beijing’s state-sanctioned abuse.
Two senators have introduced a bipartisan bill in a bid to curb the state-sanctioned crime of forced organ harvesting in China and to protect vulnerable groups from harm.
The Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act would enable sanctions against those responsible for the abuse and direct the president to compile a list of foreign individuals deemed complicit.
The list would be updated annually or as new information becomes available.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), would block the perpetrators from entering the United States or conducting U.S.-based transactions. The individuals would also lose any current U.S. visa and immigration benefits they have.
Violating the sanctions could lead to up to $250,000 in civil penalties or a maximum of $1 million and 20 years in prison in criminal punishment.
“The Chinese Communist Party operates a brutal, state-sponsored organ harvesting industry that targets people for their faith,” Cruz said in a statement. “The CCP has in particular targeted Falun Gong practitioners, committing assaults on religious liberty and fundamental human rights. The United States should hold accountable those who have committed these atrocities.”
He expressed appreciation to Merkley for joining him in sponsoring the bill and called on his colleagues to “expeditiously advance it.”
‘Horrific and Barbaric’
Falun Gong—a spiritual discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance—has faced more than 26 years of deadly persecution in China. Its tens of millions of practitioners have suffered constant police harassment, arbitrary arrests, imprisonment, and other forms of abuse.
In 2019, the independent, London-based China Tribunal concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that forced organ harvesting had taken place on a significant scale in China and that Falun Gong practitioners were the primary source of organs.
“Those harvested organs are used in transplants within China and are trafficked overseas,” Cruz’s press release states.
Cruz on March 12 called forced organ harvesting “horrific and barbaric.”
“It is a grotesque human rights violation, and we should stand united against it,” he told the Sound of Hope radio network.
The Falun Gong Protection Act, a prior version of the legislation, passed the House in May 2025.
By Eva Fu
