They tied me to a bed' - China sees resurgence in medicating 'trouble-makers' - Voice of Asia

17-year-old Zhang Junjie was sent to a psychiatric hospital and diagnosed with schizophrenia days after protesting government policies outside a Chinese university. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Zhang Junjie is just one of many people who have been forcibly hospitalized for protesting or complaining to authorities.

Many of those interviewed stated they were forcibly given antipsychotic medication without their consent, and some even received electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). While there have been reports for decades of China using hospitalization to detain dissidents, the BBC found that legislation intended to address this issue has recently regressed.

Zhang Junjie claims he was restrained and beaten by hospital staff before being forced to take medication. His ordeal began in 2022 when he protested China’s strict lockdown policies. He stated that a professor spotted him after five minutes and contacted his father, after which he was taken home. After his father called the police, two men took him to what was supposedly a COVID-19 testing center on his 18th birthday, which turned out to be a hospital.

Zhang Junjie recalled, “The doctor told me that I had a very serious mental illness…then they tied me to the bed. The nurses and doctors repeatedly told me that because of my views on the Party and the government, I must be mentally ill. It was terrifying.” He was kept there for 12 days. Zhang Junjie believes his father was forced to hand him over to the authorities because he worked for the local government.

More than a month after being discharged, Zhang Junjie was arrested again. He had filmed himself setting off fireworks for violating a ban on fireworks during the Spring Festival (intended to curb air pollution). Someone uploaded the video online, and the police managed to link it to Zhang Junjie. He was charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a charge often used to suppress criticism of the Chinese government. Zhang Junjie said he was forcibly hospitalized again for more than two months.

After being discharged, Zhang Junjie was prescribed antipsychotic medication. We saw the prescription, which was for aripiprazole, used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. He said, “Taking this medicine made my brain feel like a mess.” He also said that police would come to his home to check if he was taking the medication. Fearing a third hospitalization, Zhang Junjie decided to leave China. He told his parents he was going back to university to pack up his room, but in reality, he fled to New Zealand. He did not say goodbye to his family or friends.

Zhang Junjie is one of 59 people the BBC has identified, through speaking with them or their relatives, or reviewing court documents, who were sent to hospitals under the guise of mental health issues for protesting or challenging the authorities. The Chinese government has acknowledged the problem. The country’s Mental Health Law, enacted in 2013, was intended to stop such abuses, stipulating that it is illegal to treat people who do not have a mental illness. The law also makes it clear that psychiatric admission must be voluntary unless the patient poses a danger to themselves or others.

In fact, a prominent Chinese lawyer told BBC World News that there has been a recent surge in the number of people being held in psychiatric hospitals against their will. Huang Xuetao, who was involved in drafting the law, blames the weakening of civil society and the lack of checks and balances. “I’ve encountered many cases like this. The police want power while also evading responsibility,” he said. “Anyone who understands the flaws in this system can abuse it.”

An activist named Xie Lijian told us that he was treated for mental illness against his will in 2018. Xie Lijian said he was arrested for participating in protests demanding higher wages at a factory. He said police interrogated him for three days before sending him to a psychiatric hospital. Like Zhang Junjie, Xie Lijian said he was prescribed antipsychotic medication that impaired his critical thinking.

After a week in the hospital, he said he refused to take any more medication. After a conflict with staff and being told he was making trouble, Xie Lijian was sent to receive electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)—a therapy that passes an electric current through a patient’s brain. “The pain went from my head to my toes. I felt like my whole body didn’t belong to me. It was really painful. The shock went on. Then off. The shock went on. Then off. I fainted several times. I felt like I was going to die,” he said. He said he was discharged after 52 days. He now works part-time in Los Angeles and is seeking political asylum in the United States.

In 2019, the year after Xie Lijian said he was hospitalized, the Chinese Medical Doctor Association updated its guidelines on ECT, stipulating that ECT can only be performed with the patient's consent and under general anesthesia. We wanted to learn more about the involvement of doctors in these cases. Speaking to foreign media like the BBC without permission could get them into trouble, so our only option was to conduct an undercover investigation.

We booked phone consultations with doctors at four hospitals that, based on our evidence, had been involved in forced hospitalizations. We fabricated a story about a relative being sent to the hospital for posting anti-government comments online and asked five doctors if they had encountered cases where the police had sent patients to them. Four doctors confirmed that they had. “There is a type of admission in psychiatry called ‘troublemakers’,” one doctor told us.

Another doctor from the hospital where Zhang Junjie was held seemed to confirm his claim that the police continue to monitor patients after they are discharged. “The police will come to your home to check if you are taking your medication. If you don’t take your medication, you may break the law again,” they said. We contacted the relevant hospitals for comment but received no response. We were granted access to the medical records of pro-democracy activist Song Zaimin, who was hospitalized for the fifth time last year, which clearly demonstrated the close link between political views and psychiatric diagnoses.

The medical records stated: “Today, he…said a lot of things, talked incoherently, and criticized the Communist Party. Therefore, he was sent to our hospital for hospitalization by the police, doctors, and local residents' committee. This was an involuntary admission.” We asked Professor Thomas G. Schulze, president-elect of the World Psychiatric Association, to review the records. He replied: “No one should be involuntarily admitted and treated against their will for the situation described here. This reeks of political abuse.”

According to a group of citizen journalists in China who documented abuses of the Mental Health Law, more than 200 people reported being wrongly sent to hospitals by authorities between 2013 and 2017. Their reporting ended in 2017 because the group's founder was arrested and subsequently jailed. For victims seeking justice, the legal system appears to be stacked against them.

A man we are calling Mr. Li, who was sent to the hospital in 2023 for protesting local police, tried to take legal action against the authorities over his detention. Unlike Zhang Junjie, doctors told Mr. Li that he was not ill, but then the police arranged for an outside psychiatrist to assess him, who diagnosed him with bipolar disorder, and he was held for 45 days. After his release, he decided to challenge the diagnosis.

“If I don’t sue the police, it’s like I’m accepting that I have a mental illness. This will have a big impact on my future and freedom because the police can use this as a reason to lock me up at any time,” he said. In China, the records of anyone diagnosed with a serious mental illness can be shared with the police and even the local residents’ committee. But Mr. Li was unsuccessful, and the court rejected his appeal.

“We hear our leaders talk about the rule of law,” he told us. “We never dreamed that one day we would be locked up in a mental hospital.” The BBC found that on the official website for Chinese court judgments, 112 people are listed as having tried to take legal action against the police, local governments, or hospitals for such treatment between 2013 and 2024. About 40% of the plaintiffs had been involved in complaints against the authorities. Only two were successful. And the website appears to be censored, with five other cases we investigated missing from the database.

Nicola McBean from Rights Practice, a human rights organization based in London, said the problem is that the police have “considerable discretion” when dealing with “troublemakers.” “Putting someone in a mental hospital, bypassing procedures, is too easy and too useful a tool for local authorities.”

Now, attention is focused on the fate of video blogger Li Yixue, who accused a police officer of sexual assault. Li Yixue is reportedly in hospital for the second time recently after her posts about the matter went viral on social media. She is reportedly now under surveillance in a hotel. We submitted our findings to the Chinese embassy in the UK. The Chinese embassy said last year that the Chinese Communist Party had “reaffirmed” that “mechanisms” surrounding the law must be “improved,” and that the law “explicitly prohibits illegal detention and other illegal means of depriving or restricting citizens of their personal freedom.”