Ethan Gutmann

Ethan Gutmann (left) with Edward McMillan-Scott at Foreign Press Association press conference, 2009

Ethan Gutmann is an investigative writer, human rights defender, China watcher, author, and a former adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Gutmann's writing on China is widely published.^[1][2] He has contributed to online publications at least as far back as 1999,^[3] and wrote 2 books about China.

He testified before the U.S. Congress,^[4] the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs,^[5][6] the European Parliament and the United Nations.^[1]

Early life and education

Gutmann earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of International Affairs at Columbia University.

Losing the New China: A Story of American Commerce, Desire and Betrayal

Jay Nordlinger wrote that Gutmann's 2004 book "was about the sordid relationship between the American business community and the Chinese Communist Party. Our businessmen accommodate themselves to the Communist Party, and turn a blind eye to persecution." Sometimes they even assist the persecution, as when Cisco and other technology companies devised special ways to monitor and arrest Falun Gong practitioners".^[7]

Evidence of Cisco's activities in China became public in Gutmann's book.^[8]

Gutmann's explanation of the Golden Shield's surveillance

Before 1999, Falun Gong practitioners didn't systematically use the Internet as an organizing tool. After the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, they were isolated, fragmented, and looking for a way to organize and change government policy. They went online, used code words, avoided precise details and communicated in short bursts. But like a cat listening to mice, the 6-10 Office could find their exact location, having developed the ability to search and spy as a result of a joint venture between the Shandong Province public security bureau and Cisco Systems. The result was a comprehensive database of people's personal information, including the 6-10 Office's Falun Gong lists and a wraparound surveillance system that was quickly distributed to other provinces. The Chinese authorities called it the Golden Shield, and Hao Fengjun used it on a daily basis. "As far as following practitioners" he said, "the Golden Shield includes the ability to monitor online chatting services and email, identifying Internet Protocol addresses and all of the person's previous communication, and then being able to lock in on the person's location, because a person will usually use the computer at home or at work." Then the arrest is made.^[9]

In 2011, two separate lawsuits were filed in U.S. federal courts against Cisco Systems alleging that its technology enabled the government of China to monitor, capture, and kill Chinese citizens for their views and beliefs.^[10]

Organ harvesting in China

In 2006, allegations emerged that a large number of Falun Gong practitioners had been killed to supply China's organ transplant industry. The allegations prompted an investigation by David Kilgour and David Matas. The Kilgour–Matas report^[11] stated, "the source of 41,500 transplants for the six year period 2000 to 2005 is unexplained" and "we believe that there has been and continues today to be large scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners."^[11]

From 2006, Gutmann wrote articles about organ harvesting.^[12][13][14] In 2012, "State Organs: Transplant Abuse in China", was published with essays from six medical professionals,^{[15][16][17][18][19][20]} David Matas and Gutmann.^{[21][22][23][24][25]}

Gutmann interviewed over 100 witnesses including Falun Gong survivors, doctors, policemen, and camp administrators. He estimated that 65,000 Falun Gong practitioners were killed for their organs from 2000 to 2008,^[1][7][26] and that between 450,000 and 1 million Falun Gong practitioners were detained at any given time.^{[27][28][29][30]}

In October 2014, in an interview with The Toronto Star Gutmann did not limit the time frame to 2000 to 2008 and stated, "the number of casualties is close to 100,000".^[1]

The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem

In August 2014 Gutmann published the inside story^[30] of China's organ transplant business and its macabre connection with internment camps and killing fields for arrested dissidents, especially the adherents of Falun Gong. This new book which was made for seven years is based on interviews with top-ranking police officials, former prisoners of conscience and Chinese doctors who have killed prisoners on the operating table. Gutmann described his journey deep into the dissident archipelago of Falun Gong, Tibetans, Uighurs and House Christians, uncovering an ageless drama of resistance, eliciting confessions of deep betrayal and moments of ecstatic redemption. Jay Nordlinger a senior editor of National Review, called his book "another atom bomb".^[31]

Gutmann's explanation of the Third Rail of Journalism

In 2012 Gutmann stated,

There is a long-standing taboo in the journalism community about Falun Gong, about this issue [organ harvesting]. To touch this issue is the Third Rail of journalism. If you touch it—if you are in Beijing, if you are based in China—you will not be given access to top leaders anymore. I can give you an example of this.

I had a friend who wrote for the South China Morning Post. He wrote a very powerful article about Falun Gong back in the early days. The South China Morning Post was blocked, the web version was blocked in China for 6 months. That was at a time when the South China Morning Post was desperately trying to get penetration of that market. This is common. And so there are many dangers for doing this for journalists, and I believe those extend across the board.^[6]

2014 Taipei City mayoral election controversy

During the 2014 Taipei City mayoral election there was controversy about what Gutmann's book, The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem, published in August 2014, said about mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je. Gutmann stated he had not said that Ko was involved in the organ trade and that he might have been misinterpreted.^[32] On 27 November, Gutmann released a legal response with lawyer Clive Ansley, stating that "no English-speaking reader to date has understood for one moment that Dr. Ko was acting as an organ broker" and "Mr. Gutmann believes, and we think his book demonstrates, that Dr. Ko has acted honourably".^[33]

On 29 November, Ko won the election. A full explanation, including the actual email correspondence where Ko signed off on the story for publication, was provided by Gutmann in December.^[34][35]

Articles

• China's Gruesome Organ Harvest: The whole world isn't watching. Why not?, The Weekly Standard, 24 November 2008
• "An Occurrence on Fuyou Street", National Review, 20 July 2009 david-kilgour.com
• "The China Conundrum", The Jewish Policy Center, inFocus, Winter 2010
• "Hacker Nation: China's Cyber Assault", World Affairs Journal, May/June 2010
• "Into Thin Airwaves", The Weekly Standard, 6 December 2010
• "The Xinjiang Procedure", The Weekly Standard, 5 December 2011
• "Bitter Harvest: China's 'Organ Donation' Nightmare", World Affairs Journal, July/August 2012

Books

• Losing the New China: A Story of American Commerce, Desire, and Betrayal, (2004) ISBN 978-1893554832
• The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem, (2014) ISBN 978-1616149406

Documentaries

He appeared in Transmission 6-10 (2009),^[36] Red Reign: The Bloody Harvest of China's Prisoners (2013),^[37] and was interviewed in Free China: The Courage to Believe.

Awards

His first book Losing the New China won the "Spirit of Tiananmen" award,^[38] was listed as one of The New York Sun's "Books of the year"^[39] and the "Chan's Journalism Award" for outstanding writing.^[40]

See also

• Edward McMillan-Scott
• Arthur Caplan
• Dana Rohrabacher
• Chris Smith
• Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
• Organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China

References

External links

• The Anatomy of Mass Murder — Ethan Gutmann Speaks at CECC, (2015) YouTube video, 12 minutes
• About Ethan Gutmann, eastofethan.com
• Ethan Gutmann's articles, ethan-gutmann.com
• Killed for Organs: China's Secret State Transplant Business, (2012) YouTube video, 8 minutes
• Appearances on C-SPAN