(REVIEW) Jan Jekielek’s “Killed to Order: China’s Organ Harvesting Industry and the True Nature of America’s Biggest Adversary” is difficult to read. Not because it is poorly written, but because it is a very well-written overview of a deeply disturbing subject: That the Communist Party of China kills prisoners on demand if they have the requisite matching organs that can be quickly removed and transplanted into paying customers.
There have been reports about this for many years, but most news media have shied away from it for lack of unimpeachable evidence. Seasoned and skilled journalists have complained that their outlets have demanded standards of proof not required for other reports, and which are almost impossible to meet.
Here Jekielek, a senior editor at the Epoch Times, provides a persuasive case, outlining killings to order to provide organs: kidneys, livers, hearts, lungs, corneas, even skin.
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He argues that the CCP has industrialized the murder of prisoners, especially prisoners of conscience, to maintain a billion-dollar transplant industry. Jekielek argues that this system allows for organs to be procured “to order,” with remarkably short waiting times impossible to achieve under Western voluntary donation systems.
When a compatible recipient is found, forced “donors” are placed on operating tables and their organs are removed, often while they are still alive, and then briefly stored or else transferred directly into someone politically prominent or wealthy, Chinese or foreign. Transplant wait times can thus be reduced from a couple of years to as little as two weeks, or even days. Hospitals are sometimes conveniently located next to detention centers.
Jekielek suggests that some 200 hospitals are actively engaged in the transplant business, killing perhaps 60,000 to 90,000 young, healthy people each year.
Most of the victims are from religious minorities — especially Falun Gong, a meditative spiritual movement that has drawn the ferocious ire of the CCP and especially Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The CCP marked the group for “eradication” in 1999. Uyghur Muslims, who are brutally repressed, are also major victims, as perhaps are Tibetan Buddhist dissidents. Repressed Christians may be drawn into this web if demand increases.
The U.S. and perhaps other countries are complicit in this horror since many of the transplant surgeons involved have been and are being trained in America. Of course, this is a complex matter. The majority of human organ transplants are for valid reasons, and most of us would hope and pray that if we have need, then trained surgeons and donors could be found. Training transplant surgeons is per se a noble exercise.
But we must develop screening mechanisms to prevent the atrocities in China, aided by such training. And there are reports that when options for donors in the U.S. and elsewhere are limited, desperate patients have been told, often unofficially, that there are other possible opportunities in China.
Jekielek has spoken in Washington about his findings. He has spoken at the Kennedy Center, introduced by comedian Rob Schneider, at the Cosmos Club, the Hudson Institute and other venues. Of course, he wants to sell books, but New York and Los Angeles would be better boosters of sales than frugal Washington. Even so, “Killed to Order” has been the No. 1 bestseller on Amazon in both “Asian politics” and “Communism and Socialism” categories.
The focus on Washington is rather to highlight and promote several bills now before Congress that could address this depravity.
The Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025 (H.R. 1503), promoted by redoubtable Congressman Chris Smith passed the House on May 7, 2025, by an overwhelming 406–1 vote. It amends the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act to sanction anyone facilitating forced organ harvesting or trafficking and includes civil penalties up to $250,000 and criminal penalties of up to $1 million and 20 years in prison. It also denies or revokes the passports of those convicted of organ trafficking.
Other actions are freezing assets and banning U.S. entry for officials and medical professionals involved in forced transplants, mandating the State Department to give detailed annual assessments of Chinese organ harvesting, and preventing U.S. health insurance and government programs from funding transplants linked to China’s questionable sourcing.
These bills have cross-party support and would easily pass if brought to a vote. Despite America’s other divisions, such heinous crimes are opposed by all. The key issue will be maneuvering through our divisions and complexities to reach a vote.
Apart from forced organ harvesting, we should also pay attention to the book’s subtitle: “The True Nature of America’s Biggest Adversary.” These atrocities highlight the nature of the regime that rules China and is extending its power throughout the world.
