Chinese Mental Institutions Detaining Healthy People, Charit

  • 14 years ago
Legal experts warn the Chinese regime’s mental health institutions are detaining people who are not mentally ill and forcing treatment upon them. At the same time, those who need treatment are being ignored.

A report by two civil charities—Mental Disease and Society Watch and the Shenzhen-based Hengping Institute—says backward laws allow citizens to commit their family members to psychiatric hospitals.

The report shows 100 case studies, giving examples of people committing relatives during property disputes, and officials committing farmers to stop them from petitioning authorities in Beijing over local corruption.

Healthy people are detained for months or even years and forced to take medicine or even undergo operations. They are also denied the right to appeal.

According to official figures there are 100 million mental health patients in China. State media reports claim most aren’t given effective treatment because of a lack of funding, and many are locked up, abandoned or mistreated by families who cannot afford treatment.

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