Cases of Falun Gong Practitioners from Fujian Province Detained at Mental Hospitals

Chinese authorities are using mental hospitals as a tool to persecute ordinary Chinese citizens. On May 28th, 2010, a news piece was posted on a Chinese police website entitled: "Police Department: Mental Hospitals Should Not Admit Normal People Without the Consent of the Police Department." The news caused a stir among the public. People started thinking: Does this mean that mental hospitals can admit perfectly normal people, simply with consent from the police department? After being admitted, will these people remain normal, or will they be abused with medication? Are such mental hospitals regular hospitals, or are they psychiatric prisons?

On March 18th, 2009, the China New Journal, an authoritative magazine, published an article written by Sun Dongdong, a former professor from Beijing University and director of the Jurisdiction Appraisal Office, entitled "The Most Secure Way is to Send Mental Patients to a Mental Hospital." He stated in the article: "As for anyone who appeals to the government, I'd say, honestly, if not 100%, then 99% them have mental problems-- they are all paranoid.... It's safeguarding their human rights by forcing them into mental hospitals."

Sun didn't make a slip of the tongue-- he was telling an open secret. For many years now, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been using the approach of putting people who appeal to the government into mental hospitals. Many Falun Gong practitioners have suffered this treatment. Based on statistics from the Minghui website (Chinese version of Clearwisdom), the CCP has made use of mental hospitals to hold practitioners in 23 provinces and autonomous regions. The mental hospitals that have participated at the provincial, municipal, county, and district levels number in the hundreds. The approach of abusing practitioners with psychiatric drugs, is a well-planned, systematic policy covering all levels.

Zhang Honglin from the Chinese Medication Research Institute was one of the early advocates of using mental hospitals as a tool to persecute practitioners. He advocated for: First, relevant CCP departments organizing psychiatrists to forcefully diagnose Falun Gong practitioners as mental patients; Second, carrying out “anti-psychiatry” treatment on them; And third, carrying out “brainwashing” activities on them. From September 10th to 29th, 2001, he was at Jiuqu District in Fujian Province to assist the local 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) to persecute Falun Gong practitioners for the fifth time.

The results of regular, healthy Falun Gong practitioners being injected with unknown drugs at mental hospitals have been devastating. Among the results have been:

Destruction of the central nervous system

Partial or entire paralysis

Infections and/or damage to the muscles and organs

Partial or entire memory loss

Mental retardation

Insanity

Death

The following are some psychiatric abuse cases of practitioners from Fujian Province:

Case 1: Ms. Guan Yujing, judge serving on the Fujian Province Supreme Court, held for over four months

During the People's Congress in March 2000, because she wanted to appeal to the People's representatives, Ms. Guan Yujing, a judge serving on the Fujian Province Supreme Court, was taken to a mental hospital for the second time. None of her family members agreed to take her to the mental hospital, yet Court officials threatened her family into signing an agreement: Without the consent of the provincial court and the police department, she could not be discharged. During this period, she was injected with unknown drugs. She resisted, so the doctor got four male patients to tie her to the bed to forcefully inject her. CCP officials told her that she had to write a guarantee statement to renounce practising Falun Gong before they would release her. Ms. Guan was detained at the mental hospital for over four months.

Case 2: Prosecutor Mr. Zheng Xinqiang detained at a mental hospital three times

On May 31st, 2004, the Minghui website posted a report about Mr. Zheng Xinqiang, a young prosecutor from Ningde City, who had been detained at a mental hospital three times. Mr. Zheng's firsthand account is as follows:

“I was the assistant inspector and the team leader of the Pingnan County Procuratorate. In 1998, I began to practise Falun Gong, and soon after my hyperthyroidism was healed. Moreover, I benefited a lot mentally. After the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999, Attorney General Tian Zhiqiang confiscated my prosecutor's licence, took away my job title, didn't allow me to come to work, and forced me to withdraw my CCP membership. At the end of 2000, people from the Procuratorate used the excuse that to meet their quota, they had to dismiss me. Two deputy prosecutors demanded that the county CCP committee dismiss me. In mid-December, I was dismissed and had no source of income.

“I have been detained and thrown into the county psychiatric hospital three times since. In 1999, when I was detained there for the first time, in front of my relatives, the doctor put me down by using a sedative, then he gave me injections. After that, I became unconscious for a few days. After I woke up, they tied me to a bed, then used an electric needle to shock me. They asked me if I'd continue to practice or not. I said to them that I would, so they kept shocking me. Not until they saw that they couldn't move my heart, did they stop torturing me.

“During the October holidays, I went to Beijing to appeal to the government about Falun Gong. After I came back, I was sentenced to 15 months of imprisonment. On October 14th, 2002, my term was up. After being notified by the forced labour camp on October 26th, people from the Procuratorate, Political and Security Department, and the 610 Office came to pick me up. They drove me to the country mental hospital, using the excuse that the 16th Congress was about to be held, and threw me into a forced labour camp for detention. I resisted, but a few of them carried me into the forced labour camp and tied me to a bed. I was trying to explain the facts about Falun Gong to them, but they ended up injecting me with a sedative. A few days later, I took an opportunity to run out of the building, but a few doctors came out and brought me back. When I went on a hunger strike, they forcefully injected me. After that, I felt great pain, as if my head were split open. I felt muddle-headed. As soon as I stood up, I felt that I was going to fall down. Each of the three times I was held in a mental hospital, they injected me with the same medication, causing me to lose consciousness.”

Case 3: Mr. Huang Zejin and Mr. Qiu Baosen held at a mental hospital for six months

When the persecution started, Mr. Huang Zejin from Huaitu Township, Ninghua County, Sanming City and Mr. Qiu Baosen from Heshuixi Township refused to write a guarantee statement. Because of that, He Zhenhuai, the person in charge of the No.1 Division of Ninghua Police Department, claimed that they had mental illness, and had them detained at a mental hospital. He ordered doctors at the hospital to inject them with drugs to damage their central nervous systems. The doctors replied to him by saying, "After doing an examination, we found that neither of them has mental illness. Therefore, we can't inject that kind of medication into them." Afterwards, their managers scolded them.

Both practitioners were held at the mental hospital for six months. In 2002, Mr. Huang escaped from the hospital but He Zhenhuai managed to have him re-arrested.

Case 4: Bank employee detained at the mental hospital

Ms. Chen Yuxian was an employee of Jianshe Bank in Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province. For practising Falun Gong, she has been put under house arrest, and held at brainwashing centres, detention centres, and forced labour camps many times. On May 15th, 2011, she was arrested again. In early July, she was secretly detained at Fujian Province Women's Forced Labour Camp, where she was to be held for two years. This was the fourth time she was thrown into a forced labour camp for detention. In the past five years, Ms. Chen has been detained three times; she was also taken to a mental hospital for further torture. At the mental hospital, they forced her to take unknown drugs, and have forced injections of hormone-type medication, in an attempt to make her lose her memory.

Case 5: A woman from Jinhan Township, Ningde City subject to torture in a mental hospital

Ms. Ruan Aiyin is from Jinhan Township, Ningde City. She was sentenced and sent to Fujian Province Women's Prison for ten months, where she was tortured. On February 25th, 2008, she was in poor condition, and only then did prison officials notify her family members to bail her out. However, the Domestic Security Division used the fact that Ms. Ruan kept shouting "Falun Gong is Good" during her detention to “prove” that she had mental illness, and so they took her to Ningde City Mental Hospital. There, she was forcefully injected with medication, shocked with an electric device, and force-fed. Only when she lost consciousness and was in critical condition did the hospital notify the Domestic Security Division. They extorted 6,000 yuan¹ from her family to have her released, but 15 days later, she had to come back to the hospital.

Case 6: Ms. Chen Biyu detained at a mental hospital four times

Ms. Chen Biyu, formerly employed by the Taijiang Branch of a bank in Fuzhou City, Fujiang Province, had been held at the detention center three times, and held at a mental hospital four times, where she was tortured. She was also dismissed from her job. In October 2001, Ms. Chen passed away as a result of the abuse.

In November 1999, she appealed to the government about Falun Gong, and then was detained at Fuyou Police Station in Beijing. At the Police Station, she was fined 1,400 yuan. Later, Ms. Chen was taken to Fuzhou and detained at the Shuitou Detention Centre, also known as the Fuzhou No.1 Detention Centre, where she was made to do forced labour.

In December 1999, Ms. Chen was detained at the Pretreatment Centre affiliated with Fuzhou Mental Hospital. A number of practitioners had already died at the Centre. Later, and only after her relatives bribed officials from the police bureau with 55,000 yuan, did they agree to transfer her to the mental hospital. In December 1999, she escaped from the hospital, and went again to Beijing to appeal to the government. She was arrested again and taken back.

In November 2000, when Ms. Chen was handing out Falun Gong materials, she was reported, and then arrested and detained at the Jianyang Detention Centre. She was released, but her local police department refused to assist her with getting a proper ID.

On January 7th, 2001, Ms. Chen was taken directly to the mental hospital. Even though the doctor in charge, Lin Yaoping from the No. 2 District, clearly knew that Ms. Chen was a normal person, he still forcefully shocked her with electric needles and gave her medication that damaged her nervous system. As a result, she lost control over her bowels and bladder. When her family member challenged Lin about why he tortured Ms. Chen, he replied by saying that it was what her company asked him to do.

Later she was transferred to another hospital. Only because she couldn't pay financially, did they allow her to be discharged from the hospital and go back to work. But since she had lost her original position, she had to work as a caretaker. Later she was forced to quit that job. Because she refused to write a voluntary dismissal report, she was deceived into being held at Fuzhou Mental Hospital. Later she was forced to write: "Because I find myself not suitable for the work in the bank, I am willing to quit."

On September 26th, 2001, police officers took Ms. Chen into custody at her home again. During her detention she was tortured, and was later sent to the mental hospital again for further torture. At the end of October, Ms. Chen died from the abuse.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/8/28/245974.html