Psychiatric Torture in China
An Abundance of Reports
In December 2008, the U.N. Commission against Torture reported on China's
overall human rights situation, its' first report on China in 8 years. In
the report, "the Committee also notes with concern that this provision
has been misused to detain some people in psychiatric hospitals for
reasons other than medical."[1]
After U.N. Special Rapporteur Prof. Manfred Nowak's two week country
visit to China at the end of 2005, the U.N. published a report on the
country mission to China. The report states that torture occurred in
Chinese mental hospitals in 8% of the cases submitted to the Special
Rapporteur's mandate over the 5-year period from 2000 to 2006.[2]
Research indicates that cases of psychiatric "treatment" have spread to
23 out of 33 provinces under the direct leadership of the central
government in China. At least 100 psychiatric facilities have been used
in the effort to wipe out Falun Gong practitioner's belief. Clearly, the
abuse of psychiatric drugs on those who hold a different opinion from the
government has been a well-planned, systematically carried out, top-down
policy.
Daniel B. Borenstein, President of the American Psychiatric Association,
published a letter in the New York Times on March 27, 2001, entitled
"Jailed in China: Confront the Abuse." He stated in the article, "The WPA
[World Psychiatric Association] Committee on the Use and Abuse of
Psychiatry has moved too slowly in the face of serious accusations about
psychiatric imprisonment of Falun Gong members, union and student
leaders, and others who are diagnosed as 'political maniacs' and
subjected to shock therapy and psycho-tropic medications."[3]
Robin Munro devoted an entire chapter of his book, Dangerous Minds:
Political Psychiatry in China Today and its Origins in the Mao Era to the
psychiatric abuse of Falun Gong practitioners. In "The Falun Gong: New
Targets of Psychiatric Abuse,"[4] he describes how 42-year-old Tian
Guihua was abused at the Jiaozhou Mental Hospital in Shandong Province.
Eight mental patients held her down, while a doctor injected her with
nerve damaging drugs. "Later the female doctor asked Tan daily whether
she would continue to practice Falun Gong. Tan said, 'yes,' and the
doctor shocked her with electrical needles."[5]
The Political Use of Drugs at Mental Hospitals
Xuzhou Mental Hospital in Jiangsu Province is a typical example. Reports
of abuse started coming in shortly after July 20, 1999, when the
persecution started. In December 2000, these healthy Falun Gong
practitioners were sent to the Xuzhou Mental Hospital: Gao Chuanyin, Gao
Xiayun, Lu Bingling, Niu Shuxia, Wang Jinghua, Meng Qinquan, Wang Hui,
and Wang Ping. In March 2001, practitioners Wu Di, Peng Zhongmei, Ding
Jianhua, Yuan Ling, Guo Juanling, Bian Guiling, Wang Yumei, Dong Mei, Gao
Chunmei, and Ma Jiling were sent there as well.
Practitioners have reported losing consciousness, being tied with ropes,
given electroshock treatments, being deprived of sleep, staring blankly,
drooling, trembling, losing their eyesight or hearing, the destruction of
muscles or internal organs, loss of memory, physical or mental
disability, and even death. One of them asked the medical staff, "Why did
you inject and feed these drugs to us who are not sick? They answered,
"It is not up to us; people at the top instructed us to do so. We don't
want to treat you like this but we don't want to lose our jobs either."
Prolonged Practice of Psychiatric Torture
Since the object of psychiatric treatment is not the "patient's" well
being, it may take place in mental hospitals, forced labor camps, or any
detention facility. The following accounts remind us of what takes place
under China's expanding economy.
1. Mr. Zhao Peijie, male, 32 years of age, from Xiaonigou Village,
Datong Town, Rongcheng City, Shandong Province, was beaten, tortured,
and forced to take drugs that destroyed his central nervous system.
As a result, he became mentally ill. He died in the wilderness on
June 28, 2008.
2. In April 2006, officials from the Chibi City Police Department,
Hubei Province arrested Ms. Liu Xiaolian, 69, and sent her to the
Psychiatric Department of the Pufang Hospital. At the hospital, Ms.
Liu was brutally beaten, injected with toxic drugs, fed with mentally
debilitating drugs, and shocked with high-voltage electric batons.
For 24 hours, they continuously injected her with the mental drug.
She lost consciousness for two consecutive days and her whole body
became dark and swollen. After she woke up, she temporarily lost the
ability to speak. She died on the afternoon of October 26, 2008.
3. Ms. Li Dongqing, 46, lived in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. On
May 24, 2008, she was arrested and put into the Dongling District
Mental Hospital in Shenyang. She was injected with drugs, which made
her suffer severe psychological damage.
4. Ms. Han Ming was an employee of the Pingshui Machinery Factory in
Pingba County, Guizhou Province. On February 28, 2001, she was
sentenced to two years of forced labor. While detained in the Guizhou
Province Women's Forced Labor Camp, she was injected with an unknown
drug, which caused her entire body to suffer muscle atrophy. Her
condition deteriorated and she died on March 20, 2003, at the age of
30.
5. Ms. Zhang Wuying and her husband Mr. Wu Dianhui are from Changzhou
City, Jiangsu Province. In February of 2000, the Changzhou Public
Security Bureau arrested Mr. Wu. Although Mr. Wu and his wife were
not mentally ill, after he was released from the detention center,
the two were forcibly taken to the Changzhou Liberation Army's 102
Mental Hospital. Ms. Zhang was tied to the bed, injected with drugs
and force-fed, even though she was over five months pregnant.
To cover up their crimes, the perpetrators typically blame the victim. In
one example, Ms. Meng Lijun died after she was injected with poisonous
drugs and had harmful drugs mixed in her food and water. Her family asked
the police why they used drugs on a healthy person. They replied, "She
had a mental problem because of practicing Falun Gong and she contracted
the mental illness before her imprisonment."
Ms. Meng is just one of the many thousands.
1. http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/docs/CAT.C.CHN.CO.4.pdf
2. http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,UNCHR,MISSION,CHN,,0.html
3.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/27/opinion/l-jailed-in-china-confront-the-abuse-574694.html
4. Robin Munro on Falun Gong (See Page 158)
5. Ibid. Page 163
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