When Zhang Junjie was 17 he decided to protest outside his university about rules made by China’s government. Within days he had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital and treated for schizophrenia.
Junjie is one of dozens of people identified by the BBC who were hospitalised after protesting or complaining to the authorities.
Many people we spoke to were given anti-psychotic drugs, and in some cases electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), without their consent.
There have been reports for decades that hospitalisation was being used in China as a way of detaining dissenting citizens without involving the courts. However, the BBC has found that an issue which legislation sought to resolve, has recently made a comeback.
Junjie says he was restrained and beaten by hospital staff before being forced to take medication.
His ordeal began in 2022, after he protested against China’s harsh lockdown policies. He says his professors spotted him after just five minutes and contacted his father, who took him back to the family home. He says his father called the police, and the next day – on his 18th birthday – two men drove him to what they claimed was a Covid test centre, but was actually a hospital.
“The doctors told me I had a very serious mental disease… Then they tied me to a bed. The nurses and doctors repeatedly told me, because of my views on the party and the government, then I must be mentally ill. It was terrifying,” he told the BBC World Service. He was there for 12 days.
Junjie believes his father felt forced to hand him over to the authorities because he worked for the local government.
Just over a month after being discharged, Junjie was once again arrested. Defying a fireworks ban at Chinese New Year (a measure brought in to fight air pollution) he had made a video of himself setting them off. Someone uploaded it online and police managed to link it to Junjie.
He was accused of “picking quarrels and troublemaking” – a charge frequently used to silence criticism of the Chinese government. Junjie says he was forcibly hospitalised again for more than two months.
After being discharged, Junjie was prescribed anti-psychotic drugs. We have seen the prescription – it was for Aripiprazole, used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
“Taking the medicine made me feel like my brain was quite a mess,” he says, adding that police would come to his house to check he had taken it.
Fearing a third hospitalisation, Junjie decided to leave China. He told his parents he was returning to university to pack up his room – but, in fact, he fled to New Zealand.
He didn’t say goodbye to family or friends.
Junjie is one of 59 people who the BBC has confirmed – either by speaking to them or their relatives, or by going through court documents – have been hospitalised on mental health grounds after protesting or challenging the authorities.
The issue has been acknowledged by China’s government – the country’s 2013 Mental Health Law aimed to stop this abuse, making it illegal to treat someone who is not mentally unwell. It also explicitly states psychiatric admission must be voluntary unless the patient is a danger to themselves or others.
In fact, the number of people detained in mental health hospitals against their will has recently surged, a leading Chinese lawyer told the BBC World Service. Huang Xuetao, who was involved in drafting the law, blames a weakening of civil society and a lack of checks and balances.
“I have come across lots of cases like this. The police want power while avoiding responsibility,” he says. “Anyone who knows the shortcomings of this system can abuse it.” (BBC News)
