During a recent military parade in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Russian President Vladimir Putin was caught on a hot mic saying to Xi Jinping, his Communist Chinese counterpart, “Human organs can be continuously transplanted. The longer you live, the younger you become, and (you can) even achieve immortality.” Xi responded: “Some predict that in this century humans may live to 150 years old.”

Currently, there is no credible medical basis to suggest that continual organ transplantation can reverse the aging process, but when the two most important totalitarian leaders in the world consider this prospect, we should listen because there may be more going on than meets the ear. The overtones are ominous, and the conversation takes on added significance in the wake of a report by the United Kingdom’s Daily Telegraph that the Communist Chinese Party, or CCP, is opening six medical facilities for organ transplantation in the Xinjiang autonomous region by 2030.

Xinjiang is set to become the organ transplant destination center for privileged CCP members, wealthy Chinese nationals and well-heeled international clients. Transplant teams of surgeons, anesthesiologists and related medical personnel are being recruited to serve the elite clientele, who will pay exorbitant sums to receive an organ — money added to the coffers of the CCP.

Xinjiang is a large remote area in western China, far from the metropolitan hubs of the East. Why was it selected as the organ transplant center? Likely because of a basic principle of organ transplantation: It is far more efficient to bring organ recipients to where the donor organs are rather than transport organs long distances and risk they will not be serviceable. (This is especially true of perishable key organs such as the lungs, liver and heart.) And Xinjiang is home to large numbers of Uyghurs, a persecuted Muslim minority, who are apparently a convenient source of readily available organs.

At least half a million Uyghurs are estimated to be in prisons or detention centers in Xinjiang and, if reports from international agencies can be believed, they are the victims of forcible organ harvesting — the practice of removing organs from victims without their consent. They will likely become unwilling organ donors serving a burgeoning new medical industry in China. There have been credible reports for over a decade that the CCP has been killing prisoners in this isolated region and removing their organs. Reports suggest that in some cases, the prisoners are still alive when their organs are removed, and some of them may be imprisoned merely as a pretense to securing their organs.

In America, little attention has been paid to the practice of forcible organ harvesting. It was barely noted in the American news media that in May, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025, imposing sanctions on anyone who takes part in stealing human organs or facilitating forcible organ donation.

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., made it clear this legislation was directed at the CCP and Xi: “Every year under General Secretary Xi Jinping and his Chinese Communist Party, tens of thousands of young women and men — average age 28 — are murdered in cold blood to steal their internal organs for profit or to be transplanted into communist party cadres — members and leaders.”

Consider the enormity of the hot mic conversation between Putin and Xi in Tiananmen Square, which reveals the absurd logical extension and utter barbarity of the totalitarian socialist state. Even the most nefarious villain in a James Bond movie would not consider snatching the organs of a powerless imprisoned minority population. Sometimes, truth really is stranger than fiction.

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It is a chilling proposition, but the organs of the Uyghur prisoners in Xinjiang are not their own; those organs belong to the state. And if the hot mic conversation is any indication, they belong to the venal leaders of the state in their quixotic quest to cheat death.

Dr. Cory Franklin is a retired intensive care physician and the author of“The COVID Diaries 2020-2024: Anatomy of a Contagion as It Happened.” He wrote this column for the Chicago Tribune.

Thought-provoking reading today. A woman with a high-profile job has her life turned upside-down by a stalker and two widows tell of how their husbands died and their ways through grief.

“What Doesn’t Kill Me Makes Me Weirder and Harder to Relate To”: by Mary Lucia (University of Minnesota Press, Nov. 25, $22.95)

Going out to a show was no longer an option. Not knowing who the stalker was or what he looked like — he could be anywhere. And if a mentally unstable person warns you time and again that he’s watching you and knows where you are always, you better believe it. — from “What Doesn’t Kill Makes Me Weirder and Harder to Relate To.”

Mary Lucia (courtesy photo)

Mary Lucia was a popular afternoon drive-time DJ on Minnesota Public Radio’s music station The Current. She prided herself on connecting with listeners by sharing bits of her private life such as her love of animals, and she got great comments. Until 2014, when a package of 10 pounds of raw meat was left at the station with her name on it.  So began Lucia’s terrifying years of escalating harassment, with her stalker leaving cards and other things on her doorstep and sending messages about watching her everywhere and threatening her dogs. He was so brazen that he lurked around her house.

(Courtesy of the University of Minnesota Press)

While Lucia became more frightened, she also had to do her job interviewing rock stars, creating playlists and making public appearances. She became increasingly isolated as her family and even some close friends had a “get over it” attitude or suspected she was delusional or hysterical. And she got no help from police when she called 911. She was incredulous when one officer scolded her for having an illegal lightbulb on her porch, as if that mattered, and wanted to know if she was the stalker’s “type.”

“Paranoid or not, it wasn’t the first time there was some snide inference made based on my appearance,” she writes. “I wasn’t worthy to be stalked. I might have looked a little too punky for them to believe I could be the subject of this unwanted attention. Plus, I was in my early forties, for crying out loud. Expired goods.”

Lucia credits women with taking her seriously, including a police officer and a victims advocate. Still, she was so distraught and angry that she took a seven-month leave of absence from the station where, she writes, she got little sympathy.

Eventually her stalker slipped up, and she found evidence of his identity — Patrick Henry Kelly. There was a trial, widely covered by Twin Cities media, and Lucia was able to give her heartfelt statement in court of how she couldn’t eat or sleep and suffered panic attacks: “My whole sense of self is in question. It has left me feeling powerless.”

Kelly got five years of probation and was ordered to pay restitution. It was, Lucia believes, nothing more than “a slap on the wrist.” The man who wrote her vulgar messages was soon free to stalk a new victim, one of Lucia’s radio colleagues.

Although living in terror is the focal point of “What Doesn’t Kill Me…” Lucia also writes honestly about kicking a drug habit cold turkey and her history of self-harm by cutting. Writing in a snarky/funny style, she includes stories about her very nontraditional family, with two unhappy parents who let the kids raise themselves, as well as an anecdote about how an operating room staff had more trouble removing her belly button ring than doing the actual procedure, and how her dog ate the underside of her couch.

Lucia is now program adviser for Radio K, the University of Minnesota’s student-run radio station. For those not familiar with her musical tastes, she includes in her book the playlist for her last Current show on May 12, 2022. It begins with Keith Richards’ “Take It So Hard,” continues in the middle with T. Rex’s “Hot Love,” and ends with The Rolling Stones’ “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It).”

“In the Evening, We’ll Dance”: by Anne-Marie Erickson (Holy Cow! Press, $18.95)

During Dick’s dementia, my sense of self-esteem seemed distorted, like a reflection in a funhouse mirror. I was thrown off-kilter by fear and bewilderment, as if I, too, were trapped in dementia’s warped mirror. — from “In the Evening, We’ll Dance”

(Courtesy of Holy Cow! Press)

Subtitled “A Memoir in Essays on Love & Dementia,” Erickson gives us an intelligent and thoughtful memoir of how she and her husband, Dick, found ways to live with his dementia after years of happy marriage, and her life after his death. She relates her story to language, philosophy, science of the brain, mythologies and Biblical passages. Her style is poetic, such as her lovely memory of “waltzing” with her husband as they swayed together in his hospice bed.

So many spouses are taking Erickson’s journey now, and her experiences and insight will help anyone who picks up her book.

Erickson, who lives in Grand Rapids, is a freelance writer and college composition instructor with degrees in American studies and English. She will be at Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls., at 7 p.m. Wednesday in conversation with Patricia Hoolihan, author of “Hands and Hearts Together: Daily Meditations for Caregivers.”

“His Last Breath: A Soldier, His Wife, and the Man Who Died to Save Them”: by Michele Arnoldy (Westbow Press, $16.99)

I often collapsed into God’s presence. I would curl up in our bed, pulling the comforter over me and drawing on my only comforter, Jesus. For several minutes, sometimes hours, the man of sorrows cried with me, our tears combining into huge droplets as Jesus supernaturally comforted me in ways I don’t understand or can explain. — from “His Last Breath”

Michele Arnoldy (Courtesy of the author)

In this faith-based memoir, Michele Arnoldy writes of her and her husband’s struggles to save their marriage as they grew apart. Michelle felt she had married a man of faith but he had changed. Chris was a successful corporate executive when he voluntarily deployed to Afghanistan as a liaison between the U.S. Army and Afghan village leaders. When he returned the couple had to come to terms with his mental issues, including PTSD, depression and anxiety with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder being the predominant diagnosis. Chris eventually killed himself, leaving Michele to grieve and turn to God to heal. As she writes, “Worship is a weapon to defeat fear.”

The author has spent 18 years helping the spiritual journeys of women as they aged. She is a certified life coach, speaker and leadership trainer.

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Literary calendar for week of Sept. 21

ANDREA BEATY: Discusses her new picture book, “Billie Jean Peet, Athlete,” latest in her Questioneers series. 6 p.m. Thursday, Red Balloon Bookshop, 891 Grand Ave., St. Paul.

NIDHI CHANANI: Introduces “Super Boba Cafe: Home Sea Home,” latest in her graphic novel series, in conversation with Molly Murakami. 6 p.m. Wednesday, Red Balloon Bookshop, 891 Grand Ave., St. Paul.

DAN CHAON: Presents “One of Us” in conversation with Antonia Angress. 7 p.m. Thursday, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.

POWERS/DALGLISH: Minnesota authors AW Powers and Cass Dalglish host a meet-and-greet. Powers’ latest book is “Uncontrolled Variables,” 10th in his psychic Guardian Angels series. Dalglish’s is “Ring of Lions,” a mystery focused on the stone lion fountain in Spain’s Alhambra palace complex. Noon-2 p.m. Saturday, Once Upon a Crime, 604 W. 26th St., Mpls.

GAYLAXICON CONVENTION: Gaylaxicon, an international LGBTQIA+ and science fiction convention, presented by North Country Gaylaxicons, spotlights how the science fiction/fantasy genre has a long history of queer representation. With panel discussions, local author presentations and a comedy cabaret featuring local comedian Miss Shannon Paul. Friday-Oct. 5, Crowne Plaza Suites, 3 Appletree Square, Bloomington. Ticket information at gaylaxiconmn.org.

RENEE GILMORE: Minnesotan launches “Wayfinding,” her debut book about wanderlust that sent her to seven continents, and how her life was shaped by loss, betrayal and sexual violence, as well as mapping her route to healing, acceptance and hope. 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Inkwell Booksellers, 426 E Hennepin Ave., Mpls.

DAVID HAKENSEN: Minnesota author introduces “Her Place in the Woods: The Life of Helen Hoover,” the first complete biography of one of the state’s most beloved nature writers, who died in 1984. Hoover’s writings on life in the wilderness of the Gunflint Trail were published in popular magazines and several books, including three for children. He traces Hoover’s life from corporate work in Chicago to living in a remote homestead without electricity or running water. 7 p.m. Tuesday, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.

Poet Terrance Hayes is the guest speaker at a program sponsored by Literary Witnesses and the Loft Literary Center Oct. 2, 2025, at Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis. (Courtesy of the author)

TERRANCE HAYES: National Book Award-winning poet and MacArthur Fellow reads from “American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin,” and his latest collection, “So to Speak.” Hayes, author of seven books of poetry, is known for his work exploring popular culture, music, race, masculinity and language. Free. Presented by the Loft Literary Center and Literary Witnesses. 7 p.m. Thursday, Plymouth Congregational Church, 1900 Nicollet Ave., Mpls.

GREG HEWITT: Poet and professor of English at Carleton College discusses his debut novel, “No Names,” about the lives of members of a once-hot 1970s punk band that fell apart. 6 p.m. Tuesday, Next Chapter Booksellers, 38 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul.

PHILIP/ERIN STEAD: Author/illustrator duo introduce their new picture book, “A Snow Day for Amos McGee.” 6 p.m. Tuesday, Red Balloon Bookshop, 891 Grand Ave., St. Paul.

MONA SUSAN POWER: Enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, author of four works of fiction, including “A Council of Dolls,” discusses her work and her current writing project, a novel about hauntings. 6 p.m. Wednesday, Wescott Library, 1340 Wescott Road, Eagan.

SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA: Author of horror, fantasy and historical fiction gives a virtual discussion of her writing, including her latest, “The Bewitching.” 7 p.m. Wednesday, presented by Club Book. For registration, go to clubbook.org.

VOICES IN THE LIGHT: Writers from Flowers of Lake Phalen and Cracked Walnut read and invite other writers of all ages to read at an open mic in the opening event of the Mid-Autumn Festival of Dance, Song, Art, and fun for kids. 11 a.m. Saturday, China Friendship Garden at Phalen Park, 1624 Phalen Dr., St. Paul.

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In what’s become something of a ritual, members of Congress have lately been holding news conferences calling for stricter limits on their own stock trading. Americans love this idea, yet the bills have so far gone nowhere. Here’s hoping common sense may soon prevail.

Time and again, in recent years, members of both parties have executed trades that seemed to be awfully well timed. In early 2020, after some legislators had received classified briefings about the likely severity of COVID-19, a flurry of stock-buying ensued in industries that stood to profit from the pandemic. One congressman placed millions of dollars in undisclosed trades, including in medical and tech companies that had a stake in the virus response. More recently, at least one lawmaker seemed to have an uncanny sense that the president’s tariffs were about to be paused.

There’s also more overt corruption, such as when former Rep. Chris Collins tipped off his son that a drug made by a biotech company he was invested in had failed a crucial clinical trial. (Collins pleaded guilty to securities fraud in 2019.) The perception that lawmakers have an inside edge has even led to the creation of two exchange-traded funds that track their trading: NANC, named after Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and KRUZ, after Sen. Ted Cruz.

Even if their investing is unconnected to any privileged insights, as they all claim, it’s a poor look for legislators to be buying and selling stock in companies over which they hold sway. In recent years, analyses have found that 97 lawmakers had bought or sold stock in companies that intersected with their committee work, including more than a dozen members who oversaw the Pentagon and had financial ties to defense contractors. It’s little wonder that 80% of Americans see congressional corruption as a significant problem.

Efforts by lawmakers to regulate themselves have not been notably successful. In 2012, they passed the Stock Act to require that trades worth more than $1,000 be disclosed within 45 days. Yet members have routinely failed to comply with the requirement, which carries a whopping penalty of $200, and no legislator has ever been prosecuted for insider trading under the law.

Although more than 60 measures to limit or ban stock trading have been proposed since 2017, the problem has only gotten worse: 61% of the current Congress’ freshman class owns individual stocks, compared to 46% of the total class in the last session.

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There’s no reasonable defense for this. After all, owning low-cost index funds should under normal circumstances be far preferable to dabbling in individual stocks (88% of professional fund managers underperformed the S&P 500 index over the past 15 years). And restrictions on personal trading are hardly unusual in industries — such as finance and the news media — that are keen to prevent conflicts of interest and preserve customers’ trust.

With almost two dozen bills proposed this year alone, a clear risk is that lawmakers can’t agree on one approach. They could do worse than to endorse a bipartisan House proposal called the Restore Trust in Congress Act. It imposes a simple ban on individual stock trading by legislators and their immediate families, without loopholes for blind trusts or other complicated exceptions. It also sets penalties — all profits plus 10% of the investment value — that should provide a reasonable deterrent. It’s a sensible way to restore some public trust in the institution.

A seat in Congress comes with many privileges. Day trading shouldn’t be one of them.

— The Bloomberg Opinion Editorial Board