On July 3, 2024, local time, the cult organization Falun Gong held a news conference in Washington DC, on which a man named Cheng Peiming took off his shirt and showed a scar under his left armpit, claiming that it was left from the "organ harvesting", or the phrase they used to describe their fabricated involuntary organ transplant he suffered 20 years ago during imprisonment in Daqing city, Heilongjiang province. The Falun Gong cult has promoted Cheng as the "first known survivor of organ harvesting by the Communist Party of China(CPC)."

Notably, just a week before the very press conference, the US House of Representatives passed a bill related to Falun Gong, continuing to slander China by groundlessly claiming large-scale "organ harvesting". After more than a decade on the run and four years in the US, Cheng suddenly emerged as a key "witness" at this time and made appearances at Falun Gong press conferences twice on August 7 and September 4.

Did Cheng Peiming actually undergo forced organ removal surgery as he claimed? Who is Cheng Peiming? Is this so-called most powerful "witness" pushed by Falun Gong really credible?

To answer all these questions, the China Anti-Cult Network has sent journalists to Jixi and Daqing cities in Heilongjiang province to interview Cheng's family members, relatives, and staff from the prison where he was once incarcerated and the hospital where he received treatment.

1. It was Chen's sister who signed for a life-saving surgery

A key member of the Falun Gong cult, Cheng Peiming was born in Jixi city, Heilongjiang province in 1965. Except for his sister, Cheng Peifeng, most of his immediate family members were fanatical Falun Gong believers at the time. In 2002, Cheng was sentenced to eight years in prison for the crime of "using a cult to undermine law enforcement" and was imprisoned at Daqing Prison.

According to several prison officers who were in charge of Cheng's affairs, he exhibited a tendency of self-injury during his terms in prison.

On November 16, 2004, Zhang Zhijie, a prison officer on duty, had just finished lunch when one of Cheng's fellow inmates reported, that Cheng might have swallowed something as they found a note on his bed saying, "I swallowed a nail." Zhang and other officers rushed to help, but Cheng refused to speak despite their questioning.

Without eyewitnesses, it was unclear whether Cheng had really swallowed anything, so the officers decided to send him to the isolation ward where they could together wait for X-ray confirmation. Yet Cheng broke a window in the isolation ward, injuring his wrist, and began shouting that he had swallowed a nail. To prevent further injury, they bandaged Cheng's wrist and sent him to The Fourth Hospital of Daqingfor further treatment.

Hospital records show that on November 16, 2004, at 9 PM, Cheng was admitted to the thoracic surgery department for "foreign objects in the esophagus and stomach". "The patient swallowed foreign objects", the records show, "and chest pain gradually worsened, along with abdominal pain and discomfort."

X-rays revealed that Cheng had not only swallowed a 10-cm-long nail but also a 8.3-cm by 1.7-cm piece of a wallpaper blade. The nail had entered his intestines, while the blade was stuck in his esophagus, posing a severe risk. An investigation later revealed that Cheng had secretly collected the nail and blade from construction debris in the prison canteen.

Initially, the treatment team hoped to remove the objects using an endoscope, but an ENT consultation revealed that the blade was lodged in a narrow part of the esophagus, making it impossible to extract with an endoscope. Surgery was recommended.

"Since the blade and nail were sharp objects, we worried they could damage his esophagus and intestines, so we recommended immediate surgery," recalled Doctor Cheng Liwen, a thoracic surgeon at the hospital. Even 20 years later, he still remembers the unusual case, as it's rather rare for someone to swallow such sharp objects, especially from a prison.

However, Cheng Peiming refused surgery. Given the life-threatening situation, with the blade near the aorta, his family was called in to the hospital. Medical records show, "Both endoscopic and surgical removal of the foreign objects pose certain risks." The hospital requested family cooperation in the hope of the latter persuading Cheng.