Chinas 981 Project: Dark Connections Behind the Quest for Longevity

For decades, the “981 Project” was known only to Beijing’s elites and a few in the West who probe the dark corners of China’s no-holds-barred medical research.Studded with star physicians, the shadowy project poses as the pathway to longevity, the latest in almost a century of insider health perks for the upper echelons of the Chinese Communist Party.The once-obscure project came into the public eye this year after a hot mic moment between the Chinese and Russian leaders, who discussed the prospect of longevity via multiple organ transplants and made reference to a 150-year life span.Follow that 150-year claim, and the trail leads to a top Beijing military hospital and the 981 Project. Follow it further, and alarm bells start ringing. That hospital’s history and now-scrubbed references to “restoring organ functions,” researchers say, may point to a darker story: forced organ harvesting.Combating DeathChinese state television captured the hot mic musings on Sept. 3 as Chinese leader Xi Jinping escorted his Russian and North Korean counterparts to an enormous military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.“Earlier, people rarely lived to 70, but these days at 70 you are still a child,” Xi told Russian President Vladimir Putin, prompting the latter—who, like Xi, is 72—to reference continued organ transplants as a key to everlasting youth.“Predictions are that in this century, there’s a chance of living to 150,” Xi said just before the audio faded.That longevity claim harks back to a one-minute ad in 2019 promoting the 301 Hospital in Beijing, China’s top military medical center dedicated to treating those in the top political circles.“A 150-year lifespan project to combat death,” the voiceover in the ad calls it.The clip describes a health system decades in the making, combining the best of traditional Chinese medicine with Western technology. At one point, the voiceover touts the system for the Chinese elite as “tried and true” and first-rate, backing up the claim with a graph that depicts Chinese leaders outliving their American and British peers by at least a decade.The bold declaration troubles medical ethicists.“Sickness is not something that is turned on and off like a light switch,” Dr. Torsten Trey, executive director of Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting, told The Epoch Times. “It is one thing to talk about staying in power and becoming 150 years old. But how would they do that?”Chinese leader Xi Jinping (C), Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean leader Kim Jung Un, and others are seen on a large screen as they arrive at a military parade in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Sept. 3, 2025. Kevin Frayer/Getty ImagesOrgans on DemandThat “how” is the very question that the state-backed 981 Project seeks to address.Building off of “80 plus years of red health care history,” the 981 Leaders’ Health Care Project began in 2005, according to public records about the initiative. It’s a “pilot program” under military health officials, pooling together “the nation’s highest medical resource” and medical talents, according to descriptions on a Chinese information depository that have now been taken down.The name itself denotes prestige.Nine is a homophone for long-lasting in Chinese, and 81 is a reference to the founding of the People’s Liberation Army on Aug. 1. Eight and one add up to another nine—a double reference to longevity, founder Zhao Wei, a doctor formerly with China’s supreme military command body, the Central Military Commission, told a Beijing magazine in 2016.The 981 initiative prescribes meticulous medical upkeep via comprehensive health screenings that vary by job—as many as 150 for astronauts and pilots in the military.But prevention and detection have their limits. To that end, the short-lived 2019 ad provides an answer: “restoring organ functions.”The phrase is one of six key focuses featured in the program, and, according to Trey, it could mean several things: transplants, medication, and stem cell therapies. The project has supplied scant information on what it takes to reach the goal of restoring organ function. Still, in a country with long-standing concerns about transplant abuses, the very mention of organ transplants raises concerns.Doctors carry organs for transplant at a hospital in Henan Province, China, on Aug. 16, 2012. A recent hot mic exchange between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin about living longer through organ transplants has drawn attention to a shadowy program in China. Sohu.com/Screenshot via The Epoch TimesA Convenient TargetWhistleblowers first sounded the alarm over systematic forced organ harvesting in 2006, a year after the 981 Project rolled out.One of them, a medical staff member in a northeastern Chinese hospital, told The Epoch Times that her neurosurgeon ex-husband removed corneas from detained Falun Gong practitioners and that the remains went straight to the incinerator for cremation.An independent UK tribunal—chaired by war crimes prosecutor Sir Geoffrey Nice—confirmed in 2019 that forced organ harvesting had been occurring across China under the state’s watch, with Falun Gong practitioners “probably the principal source.”Falun Gong makes a convenient target. The spiritual practice, which drew about 70 million to 100 million people by the late 1990s, has been targeted by the regime since 1999. Its practitioners meditate daily, don’t smoke or drink, and aspire to a peaceful mindset—healthy lifestyle habits that researchers suggest have made their organs ideal for the organ transplant trade.To avoid implicating their friends and families, many Falun Gong practitioners refuse to give their names when police officers detain them. And without official records, they are easy prey for the illicit organ trade, where secrecy is key.“There has been a population of donors accessible to hospitals in the [People’s Republic of China] whose organs could be extracted according to demand for them,” the tribunal said in a judgment.Chinese authorities, it states, “would have no difficulty in committing Falun Gong practitioners to any fate,” turning them into a ready donor pool.Former senior Chinese official Bai Shizhong has connections to both organ harvesting and the 981 Project. He once oversaw the health department of the Chinese army logistics branch.In a 2014 call with U.S.-based undercover investigators, Bai admitted that taking organs from Falun Gong practitioners was an order from the top.After retiring in 2004, Bai became active in two national medical associations under Beijing’s oversight, which issued awards to the 981 Project in 2013 and 2019 and provided other forms of guidance, according to Chinese media reports.China Tribunal chair Sir Geoffrey Nice delivers the verdict of the independent tribunal that assessed evidence of China’s alleged rights abuses against the Uyghur people. The tribunal took place in London on Dec. 9, 2021. Alberto Pezzali/AP Photo‘Many Organs’ ReplacedChinese officials have eyed replacing organs as an option for rejuvenating life since the late 1970s, when China’s organ transplant industry was in its infancy.In 1978, according to a U.S.-based Chinese-language magazine, now known as the China News Digest, medical workers harvested kidneys from a political prisoner right after execution. The organs went to the child of a high-ranking official who was suffering from kidney failure.As the practice proliferated underground, regime leaders kept a tight lid on the health records of the political elite. Nonetheless, accounts of organ transplant surgeries on political dignitaries have trickled out over the years.In 2023, the death of former Chinese Deputy Cultural Minister Gao Zhanxiang made headlines after an obituary inadvertently divulged that he had replaced “many organs.” The 87-year-old had changed so many body parts that he once joked that “many components are not his own anymore,” the obituary read.Like Gao, ex-Chinese finance minister Jin Renqing had a heart transplant surgery that allowed him to regain his social life, according to a now-removed blog post from someone who had been a friend of his for 30 years.Chinese Finance Minister Jin Renqing speaks during the National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 8, 2007. A now-removed blog post by his friend of 30 years revealed that Jin underwent a heart transplant. Teh Eng Koon/AFP via Getty ImagesThe 301 HospitalArchives of the 981 Project website show that its Beijing medical center has 11 departments, although they aren’t listed individually, making it hard to gauge whether the project directly conducts transplant surgeries.Trey said that there are more than enough medical facilities in its network that can provide transplants upon referral.Many of the project’s partnering hospitals are on an international investigator’s watchlist for potential abuses because of their large volumes of transplants. Among them is the 301 Hospital, formally known as Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army General Hospital and the source of the 2019 ad that resurfaced after Xi’s remark about living to 150.The 301 Hospital is the country’s largest military hospital and serves top Chinese authorities and military units.The entrance of the 301 Military Hospital in Beijing on July 6, 2011. The hospital, China’s largest military medical center serving top officials and military units, is one of several under international scrutiny for potential abuses due to unusually high volumes of organ transplants. Liu Jin/AFP via Getty ImagesSouth of a garden and adjacent to a state guest building is the southern building, a closely guarded wing and the go-to place for top-ranking officials when they fall ill.The same physicians who have attended to the communist leaders are now at the 981 Project, working toward the longevity goal.In 2011, the 301 Hospital arranged a liver transplant for Wang Ying, a police bureau director who oversaw the local suppression of Falun Gong. He was lauded by the regime as an “exemplary role model,” according to Chinese state media reports.The time between hospitalization and surgery was less than three months.After the surgery, Yang Huanning, the regime’s deputy public security minister, paid a visit to pass along well wishes from his own bosses and said that the hospital had provided “first-rate technological and medical conditions” and that the “related political and legal departments” had done “every preparatory work within their means,” Chinese media stated.One official overseeing Wang’s operation was Zhou Yongkang, then China’s third-most powerful man, whom Beijing linked to illicit organ abuses after he fell from favor.Chinese officials have on-demand access to organs when they need them, according to a source with deep knowledge of the Chinese medical system who consults with high-level Chinese officials. The individual requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation.Doctors prepare for a kidney transplant, in this file photo. Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP/Getty Images‘Protecting the Leadership’The historical lineage of projects aimed at boosting health and longevity dates back almost to the Party’s founding.As early as the late 1920s, while struggling to survive civil war in China, the fledgling Chinese communists already had a hospital for treating their top leadership.Not long after the communist party assumed control over China in 1949, the communist authorities began a 100-acre farm staffed with soldiers to supply fresh dairy and produce for officials near Jade Spring Hill, according to a Chinese state history magazine. The area, commonly known as the “back garden” of Chinese politics, is home to private villas of high-ranking military leaders.The farm, the magazine article said, cultivated rare off-season foods that first Party chief Mao Zedong enjoyed—such as seedless watermelon, which didn’t become commercially available until at least the late 1990s.Between the 1960s and 1970s, injecting blood from young soldiers was a popular “tonic” for senior communist officials, Li Zhisui, the 22-year-long personal physician for Mao, wrote in his 1994 memoir, which was published in the United States and banned in China.Military delegates arrive for the third plenary session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 10, 2018. Fred Dufour/AFP via Getty ImagesWhatever the latest fad in the hunt for longevity, one theme remained constant throughout the years: The ruling elite has always come first.Chinese communist cadres get free premier health care in VIP patient wards; for those at the top, a select panel of nutrition experts deliberates on what they should eat, Chinese media reports show.In 2006, Chinese state media quoted a former deputy Chinese health minister as saying that four-fifths of Chinese health care dollars serve the 85 million Chinese Communist Party members. The official later walked back the statement after a nationwide backlash. The Epoch Times cannot independently verify the claim.“Protecting the leadership” is a national priority, the source told The Epoch Times.Dr. Ning Xiaowei, a cardiologist who worked in VIP wards at a major Chinese hospital, recalled that a deputy provincial official summoned the best hospitals from the entire province to treat an injury.Ning said it was a textbook case of how the Chinese communist hierarchy works.“The so-called people’s servants have the entire Chinese population serving them,” she told The Epoch Times.The special treatment for the elites is revealed in the data.In the late 1970s, when Chinese people lived to 68 years on average, the top communist statesmen reached their late 70s and 80s, an Epoch Times analysis of public data found.One of the longest-living people in China’s modern history was Zhang Lixiong, a major general of the People’s Liberation Army. He died in April 2024 at the age of 110. Former State Councilor Song Ping, who is still alive, is 108.Song Ping, former Politburo Standing Committee member, attends the the 20th Chinese Communist Party’s Congress in Beijing on Oct. 16, 2022. Noel Celis/AFP via Getty ImagesKeeping It QuietThe state-backed 981 Project comprises about a dozen health experts who formerly treated high-ranking Chinese officials at the 301 Hospital, among hundreds of top Chinese hospitals, as partners, according to Chinese media articles and promotional clips featuring the program.Little is known about the project, which opened its first medical center in 2011 to serve a broader audience: a segment it describes as “industry elites.” Although it describes three world-class labs for genetic testing, immune cell experiments, and stem cell regeneration, along with dozens of health resorts, there’s no single official website dedicated to it. The latest available archive of such a webpage was dated in February 2019, months before the ad thrust the initiative into the public eye.On TikTok’s sister app Douyin, though, glowing accounts of the project abound.“How miraculous is it? Our clients’ average age is 92.5, 38 percent are over 100,” one post states.“Healthy at 88; 150-year lifespan isn’t a dream,” declares another.People read articles and photos on a bulletin board in the compound of the 301 Hospital, where top Chinese leaders often receive medical care, in Beijing, on July 6, 2011. Goh Chai Hin/AFP via Getty ImagesMany more posts featured men and women smiling in front of framed portraits of its elite physicians and communist flags, displays of elegantly packaged products, and sneak peeks of presentations to “VIPs.”In a November 2021 clip, one visitor shows a shimmering swimming pool against a backdrop of green shrubs, appreciating the “supreme treatment” as they tour a 981 branch in Hainan, a tropical island famed for luxury resorts at the southern tip of China.“They’re creating a huge amount of health infrastructure on Hainan,” and using top Western disease and longevity experts to staff it, the source said. The project is among the highest priorities for the regime, the person said.The project’s membership roster has grown to more than 3,700 as of late 2021; both the billionaire CEO of Chinese smartphone brand Xiaomi and the former president of state-owned audio manufacturer Guoguang Electronic have made it their go-to, the videos say.Yuan Hongbing, a political insider with access to top Party officials, describes the project as an “upgrade” from the regime’s previous health care ventures.“It’s a cash cow for the Party,” he told The Epoch Times.Simultaneously, he said, the project creates an ecosystem: It provides care for senior officials while forging alliances with the political and social elites, lending legitimacy to any potential corruption under the guise of care.The project’s years of growth also parallel a series of censorship efforts.Around the time that the 981 Project took off, the organ transplant business was booming in China. Chinese hospitals, eager to attract patients, touted their surging operation records on websites with bold red fonts and graphs showing sharp upward curves, archives show.A Chinese hospital touts its transplant volume in a graph titled: “Our achievements.” The hospital’s transplant volume soared from nine in 1998 to more than 1,600 in 2004. World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun GongScreenshots of a 301 Hospital video ad that lists (L–R) the top focuses of the 981 Project, including restoring organ functions; the names of six top Chinese officials, including Mao Zedong, who lived into their 80s and 90s, as evidence of the project’s effectiveness; and overlay text reading “981, 150-year longevity project to combat death.” Radio Free AsiaAll such promotions have vanished from their websites amid international scrutiny.In 2019, Chinese internet censors scrubbed the hospital ad within a day, declaring it to be “improperly using the name or image of government agencies and personnel.”Since then, the “organ functions” focus has vanished from the project description.The recent hot mic moment suffered a similar fate—the video was scrubbed quickly from the Chinese internet, and licensing rights were retracted from international news agencies.The opacity of China’s political apparatus makes such omissions all the more notable, Trey said.“If this was insignificant, they would just leave it,” he said.Instead, “they went on stealth mode.”Fighting Against DeathNephrologist Dr. Richard Amerling, former president of the first U.S. doctors’ group to take a stance against the industrial-scale forced organ harvesting in China, said the idea that a regime can sacrifice innocent lives for the sake of its own appalls him.“They don’t have any semblance of an organ-sharing network like we do here; the elite get first priority, obviously, right? Why wouldn’t they?” Amerling told The Epoch Times. “These people have absolute power, so their organ network is designed to keep these people alive.“It’s just absolutely diabolical.”But for a communist regime that prizes its rule above all else, this is simply part of the deal, Chinese whistleblower Dr. Zheng Zhi said. In the 1990s, he participated in an eyeball extraction in a military van; years later, he watched a military officer promise a senior official a “fresh” kidney from a Falun Gong practitioner.Zheng Zhi during an interview in Toronto, Canada, on July 31, 2023. Zheng is one of several witnesses who’ve come forward to The Epoch Times since 2006 to expose the Chinese regime’s forced organ harvesting practice. Yi Ling/The Epoch TimesWhat started initially as a covert “military mission” during his surgery days has now expanded far beyond what the world can imagine, he said.“This isn’t a secret anymore,” he told The Epoch Times. “It’s just no one dares to talk about it openly.”The mindset of the atheist regime is indifference to human life and a tendency to push the boundaries to achieve its goals, according to Trey.“They basically just treat the human body like an object—like a car—and then they just replace the organs like you do for your car,” he said.But unlike car parts, human organs can’t be swapped in and out repeatedly, according to Dr. Andreas Weber, deputy director of Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting’s Europe branch.Operations damage the veins that connect the transplanted organ to the host, and such damage adds up, he said.“The more you operate on those vessels, the sooner they fail,” he said.Immuno-suppressant drugs, a fact of life for organ recipients, also make patients vulnerable to viruses such as COVID-19, a factor that may have contributed to the Chinese deputy cultural minister’s demise, experts previously told The Epoch Times.Trey said that in the longevity program, he sees something that Chinese communist leaders won’t say out loud: the fear of death.“When they’re alive, they have everything,” he said. “When they die, there’s nothing. So they want to fight against it.”Luo Ya, Jan Jekielek, and Xu Xiuhui contributed to this report.