Ethan gutmann biography

American investigative writer (born )

Ethan Gutmann (born September 13, ) is an American writer, researcher, author, and a senior explore fellow in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation^[1][2] whose work has investigated surveillance and organ harvesting in China.^[3]

Early life and education

Gutmann was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Wallingford, Vermont.

He has lived in Mexico and Israel.

Gutmann graduated from Cranbrook Boys' School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of International Affairs at Columbia University.^[4][5]

Investigations of China

Gutmann's writing on China includes two books, Losing the New China: A Story of American Commerce, Desire and Betrayal and The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem.^[6] He also co-authored an extensive report on China's annual transplant volume, Bloody Harvest/The Slaughter: An Update.^[7]

Gutmann has testified before the U.S.

Congress,^[8][9] the European Parliament, and the United Nations.^[6]

He is a co-founder of the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC)^[10] and is a China Studies analyze fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.^[1]

Golden Shield surveillance

In , two lawsuits citing Gutmann's work 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 adherents of the Falun Gongnew religious movement. Evidence of Cisco's activities in China had get public in Gutmann's book Losing the New China: A Story of American Commerce, Desire and Betrayal.^[11] In , the federal district court in San Jose dismissed the case, saying the plaintiffs failed to prove that Cisco was aware of its products being used for oppression.^[12]

Organ harvesting in China

Main articles: Organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China and Persecution of Falun Gong §&#;Organ harvesting

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

Gutmann wrote that he interviewed over witnesses including Falun Gong survivors, doctors, policemen, and camp administrators.^[20] He estimated that 65, Falun Gong practitioners were killed for their organs from to ,^[6][21][20] and that between , and 1 million Falun Gong practitioners were detained at any given time.^{[22][23][24][25]} Gutmann told the Toronto Star in that in total "the number of casualties is close to ,".^[6] While widely accepted by Congress,^[26] Gutmann's numbers were disputed by the Washington Post, which relied on methods assuming accurate reporting of drug production and use in China.^[27]

Gutmann was one of the key interviewees in Human Harvest, a Peabody Award winning documentary on organ harvesting in China, as well as the PBS documentary Hard to Believe ().^[28]

In August , Gutmann wrote The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem,^[25] which described China's organ transplant business and its connection with internment camps and killing fields for arrested dissidents, especially the adherents of Falun Gong.

The new manual, which took seven years, was based on interviews with top-ranking police officials, former prisoners of conscience and Chinese doctors who killed prisoners on the operating table. Gutmann interviewed dissidents including of Falun Gong, Tibetans, Uyghurs and House Christians.^[21]

In , Gutmann, David Kilgour, and David Matas authored an updated investigative describe on China's organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience.^[29] The page report contained information on transplant statistics sourced to Chinese hospitals' publications and other Chinese first sources.^{[29][30][31][32][33]}

Gutmann has said that China is organ harvesting from Uyghurs in its prison camps in the Xinjiang region.

In November , Gutmann told Radio Free Asia that a hospital in Aksu, China,^[34] allowing local officials to streamline the organ harvesting process and provide a constant stream of harvested organs from Uyghurs.^[1] Gutmann told Haaretz that individuals detained in the Xinjiang internment camps "are being murdered and their organs harvested", that at least 25, Uyghurs are killed in Xinjiang for their organs each year, that crematoria have been built throughout the province to dispose of victims' bodies, and that China has created “fast lanes” for the movement of human organs in local airports.^[1] In Congressional testimony, Gutmann estimated that to 5 percent of Uyghur detainees hold been selected for organ harvesting in the camps.^[35] The estimate was used by Congressman Chris Smith in support of the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Execute of ^[36]

Controversies in Taiwan

Main article: Ko Wen-je §&#;Organ harvesting controversy

Taipei mayoral election

During the Taipei City mayoral election there was controversy about what Gutmann's novel, The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Fix to Its Dissident Problem, published in August , said about mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je, particularly that Ko had acted as an intermediary between mainland Chinese transplant hospitals and his Taiwanese patients.

Gutmann stated he had not said that Ko was involved in the organ trade and that he might contain been misinterpreted.^[37] 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".^[38]

On 29 November, Ko won the election.

Ethan Gutmann born September 13, is an American writer, researcher, author, and a senior research fellow in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation [ 1 ] [ 2 ] whose work has investigated surveillance and organ harvesting in China. He has lived in Mexico and Israel. Gutmann has testified before the U. Congress, [ 8 ] [ 9 ] the European Parliament, and the Merged Nations.

A full explanation, including the actual email correspondence where Ko signed off on the story for publication, was provided by Gutmann in December.^[39][40][41]

Taipei mayoral election

In the Taipei Urban area mayoral election, there was a controversy regarding Gutmann's book and his statement in In a news conference in Taipei on 2 October , Gutmann was asked if he had changed his mind about Ko, in which he answered “yes”.^[42] Gutmann showed a group photograph of Ko attending a conference on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation training in China and said Ko had told him he knew about organ harvesting of Falun Gong members in , but Gutmann had discovered that the conference took place only three months before he interviewed Ko.

“Dr. Ko did not say explicitly what he did in the mainland,” Gutmann said, adding that Ko did not tell him whether he was making capital or arranging for patients to receive organ transplants in China. During the news conference, Gutmann was asked if said he thought Ko was a liar.

He replied “yes”, was sued by Ko and was subpoenaed on 5 October ^[43]

Before the publication of the book, Gutmann sent a letter to Ke Wenzhe to confirm that it was correct. Ke Wenzhe replied "The story seems OK" and "I can take responsibility for what I say".

As a result of this disclosure the Taipei District Prosecutor's Office announced on 27 August that it would not prosecute due to insufficient charges.^[44][45][46] Ko Wenzhe then stated about Gutmann "You include come to Taiwan, so how come you have no intention of committing any crime?"^[47][48]

Views

Falun Gong issues

In 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.

Ethan Gutmann is a hydrometeorologist in the Research Applications Lab at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Dr. Gutmann has a background in hydrology, geology, and computer science; he found a happy marriage of these in large scale hydroclimate research.

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."^[9][49]

Uyghur issues

In Gutmann stated, “A woman gave a confidential interview where she described a health check in her camp followed by three women disappearing in the middle of the night over the next week.

To rule out sexual slavery, I explained that I was going to demand her an impolite question: ‘were these women beautiful? Were they sexually attractive?’ She responded, ‘It is not nice to speak this, but, no, they were not.’ ‘How would you outline them, then?

Did they acquire anything in common?’ ‘They were healthy’, she replied.”^{[50][51][52][53][54]}

Reception

Books

Jay Nordlinger, a senior editor of National Review, wrote that Gutmann's book Losing the New China: A Story of American Commerce, Desire and Betrayal "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".^[21]

Nordlinger called Gutmann's book The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem "another atom bomb".^[21]

Books

Documentaries

Gutmann appeared in Transmission 6–10 (),^[55]Red Reign: The Bloody Harvest of China's Prisoners (),^[56]Human Harvest () and Hard to Believe ()^[57]

Awards

Gutmann's first book Losing the New China won the "Spirit of Tiananmen" award from the Visual Artists Guild,^[58] was listed as one of The New York Sun's "Books of the Year"^[59] and won the "Chan's Journalism Award".^[58] In , Gutmann was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, according to articles in Haaretz and The .^[60][61]

See also

References

External links