China is locking up critics in psychiatric hospitals: Report

Madrid : In China, posting a political comment, submitting a complaint about a corrupt official, or shouting slogans in the street, will quickly get you locked up in a detention centre or it might get you admitted to a psychiatric hospital, a report has claimed.
The report by Madrid-based NGO Safeguard Defenders “exposes” how Chinese police and government agents are still sending petitioners and activists to psychiatric wards for medically-unnecessary compulsory treatment, where some languish for years.
“In 2022, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is still routinely locking up political targets in psychiatric hospitals despite implementing legal changes to stop this barbaric practice more than a decade ago,” the report claimed.
“In the name of stability maintenance, the CCP is able to remove petitioners and activists entirely out of the justice system, with no hope of seeing a lawyer or going to trial, while diagnosing them with mental illness so that they are socially isolated even after release,” the report said.
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“Doctors and hospitals are either coerced by, or collude with, the authorities by allowing this abuse to take place,” it added.