Insider Paper BY AFP
China’s use of psychiatric hospitals to imprison activists without due process remains routine, a rights group has said, accusing doctors and the healthcare system of colluding with authorities in punishing dissidents.
Beijing authorities for decades used the country’s system of psychiatric hospitals, known as Ankang, to punish political prisoners.
A report released Tuesday by Madrid-based NGO Safeguard Defenders said the practice continues, despite reforms in the early 2010s that required medical assent and increased judicial oversight over China’s psychiatric care system.
The majority of the data in the report comes from interviews with victims and their families posted online by Chinese NGO Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch (CRLW), an organization founded by activist and citizen journalist Liu Feiyue.
The data looks at the cases of 99 Chinese people forced into psychiatric hospitalization for political reasons between 2015 and 2021.
“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 group said.
