Harry Wu: His Legacy
Releasing Wu was a major embarrassment to the PRC government. And, where in the world did Wu live? You guessed it: Milpitas. In fact, a very big deal was made to welcome Harry Wu home to Milpitas when he returned to the United States.
Dateline: 3/19/98, Updated 6/18/2023/
From his inauspicious Milpitas tract home, Harry Wu has been operating a center for international intrigue. Once again, the controversial Chinese human rights crusader has made his blow for the fate of imprisoned dissidents in China, and put Milpitas on the front page of papers around the world.
Harry’s target this time: China’s practice of reselling the organs of executed prisoners for transplant purposes here in the United States, in China, and in other countries.
This particular battle began when Harry received a phone call in his home office, crammed with computers and file cabinets. The caller had been contacted by a Mr. Wang Cheng Yong about helping him to sell human organs smuggled in from China. Knowing this was illegal, the caller had first contacted the Laogai Research Foundation, which tracks prison camps in China. He was given Harry’s number here in Milpitas.
After hearing the caller’s tale, Harry, posing as a director of a kidney dialysis clinic, contacted Wang, and made arrangements to meet him in Manhattan on February 13.
Wang eagerly offered kidneys, corneas, livers and lungs, “Whatever you want, I can give it to you.” Harry remembered thinking he felt like he was in some gruesome butcher shop.
Harry contacted the FBI immediately afterwards. They arranged for Wu’s original contact, Harry, and an FBI undercover agent to meet with Wang again on February 20.
Wang offered even pancreases and skin this time. He was accompanied by a Chinese citizen, Xingqui Fu, who lives in Flushing, New York. They were ready to deal. The exact details will come out in the men’s trial, as the FBI arrested the two on charges of conspiring to violate the federal law against selling human organs for profit.
China may have an “official” position, banning the sale of prisoners’ organs, but the trade flourishes with little restraint from the Chinese government. China has more than 65 capital offenses, executing an estimated 4,300 prisoners a year. With the demand for organs increasing as the risk in transplant operations decreases, the danger of unscrupulous sales of human organs rises.
Harry Wu knows firsthand the atrocious conditions of the Laogai. In 1960, Wu was imprisoned at the age of 23 for criticizing the Communist Party, and subsequently spent 19 years toiling in the factories, mines, and fields of the Laogai.
Related Links
News Chronolgy
The Saga of Harry Wu – June 19, 1995
Shortly before noon on June 19, 1995, began an extraordinary ordeal for Harry Wu, whose outcome remained very much in doubt until the Chinese government expelled him 66 days later, on Aug. 24.
Aug 23, 1995
China finds Harry Wu guilty of spying, says it will expel him.
Aug 24, 1995
China’s swift sentencing of activist Harry Wu could be the key to unlock an immediate impasse in troubled U.S. ties.
Aug 25, 1995
Harry Wu returned home to a hero’s welcome.
March 8, 1996
Harry Wu recipient of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review’s 1996 Award for Leadership in Human Rights.
April 1, 1997
An exclusive interview with Robert R. Reilly.
April 19, 1998
Former Chinese political prisoner Harry Wu to speak at Earlham.
The trouble with Harry Wu. Maria Chan Morgan, professor of Politics, Earlham U., Harry Wu is an anticommunist demagogue.
China debate shifts. John White, senior History major, Earlham U., When the issue is taking jobs away from American labor and replacing them with Chinese labor who may be forced against their will to complete products, then there is a problem.
May 9, 1996
The Cargo Letter reminds shippers that it is illegal to import goods made by prison labor.
June 18, 1997
Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defense Policy Subcommittee on Human Rights. Public Hearing: “The Social Clause: Human Rights Promotion or Protectionism?” The Abuse of Prison Labor, Harry Wu.
September 18, 1997
Testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, by Harry Wu, Executive Director, The Laogai Research Foundation
Research Fellow, Hoover Institute
November 6, 1998
Activist Wu addresses students, tells them what they can do.
October 1999
Harry Wu announces he is looking for an apartment in Virginia to better manage the Laogai Research Foundation. His parents will continue to live in his home in Milpitas.
February 22-24, 2000
Internationally renowned human rights advocate and Chinese dissident Harry Wu visited Charlotte as the guest speaker for The Echo Foundation’s first annual Benefit Award Dinner.
April 5, 2001
Harry Wu on the real China: WND interviews former political prisoner, human-rights champion.
June 22, 2005
Testimony of Harry Wu Executive Director, Laogai Research Foundation Before the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Of the United States Senate.
April 26, 2016
Harry Wu (Wu Hongda), victim and exposer of China’s gulag, died on April 26th, aged 79, in Honduras where he was vacationing.
Oct 10, 2018
You buy a purse at Walmart. There’s a note inside from a “Chinese prisoner.” Now what?