They snatched Liao Meizhi on her birthday, dragging her off the street and into a dirty blue van as others held back her husband.
It was only two months later, when a stranger knocked on the door, that her family learned where she had been taken. The man said he had just been discharged from a nearby mental hospital — and that Liao was being held there against her will. Her husband insists she has no psychiatric problems.
More than six months after she was seized, her family says she remains incarcerated just outside her hometown of Qianjiang, Hubei Province.
Researchers believe she is among a growing number of people wrongly detained in psychiatric institutions after clashing with local officials. One activist has compiled a database of more than 500 such cases.
Some victims have been held for a decade. Those freed describe being forcibly treated — with electro-convulsive therapy and powerful anti-psychotic drugs — for health problems they never had.
“In the last few years you have been seeing more and more cases involving petitioners and whistle-blowers — ‘the awkward squad’ — [often when] the authorities have tried other punishments or sanctions to make them stop,” said Robin Munro, author of China’s Psychiatric Inquisition. “Finally they really try to scare them to hell by putting them in mental hospitals.”
There is historical precedent: From the 1960s to the 1980s, some types of dissidence were regarded as evidence of mental illness and therefore “treatable” via incarceration.
“[But] from the late ’80s it has been 100 percent expediency, designed to punish or silence someone — or both,” Munro said.
Liao had tussled with local officials for nine years over her father-in-law’s pension. In the last three she traveled to Beijing four times to raise her family’s grievance with central government. Each time, local authorities seized and returned her.
Her husband, Yang Chunguang, said she was sent to black jails — unofficial detention houses — and beaten. His photos show huge, livid bruises on Liao’s arms and legs.
After one such incident, he said, he agreed to admit her to the Qianjiang mental hospital because officials threatened to harm her otherwise. A doctor diagnosed Liao’s “paranoia,” with the admission form citing “delusions of persecution.”
The evidence: She “believed she had been attacked; petitioned for [many] years.”
Liao was released two days later. Soon she was petitioning again.
The family thought it had finally resolved its dispute this winter, but in January four thugs launched a serious assault on Liao as she shopped in a local market.
The couple were convinced it was related to the row and went to authorities to complain as soon as Liao had recovered. As they left the government offices, around a dozen men snatched her. Her husband believes he recognized two of her assailants from the health department, but the office denied involvement and police refused to register his complaint.
Even when Yang learnt of Liao’s incarceration, the Yanshi mental hospital denied it was holding her. It took six visits before it allowed him to see her, for around 15 minutes.
His normally loquacious wife was subdued.
“Her whole face and head were swollen, probably from crying too much,” he said.
He has not seen her since that visit in April.
“She is the cornerstone of the family. I want her back, soon, so we can go back to normal life,” he said.
But Liu Feiyue (劉飛躍) of Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch, who monitors such cases, warned that the effects of incarceration are lasting.
“Many victims suffer long-term depression and struggle after their release,” he said.
Munro fears that pressure to curb other forms of arbitrary detention has led some officials to turn to psychiatric institutions, where they face few awkward questions. China does not have a mental health law; there are no admission hearings and no rights to legal counsel or a second opinion.
Piecemeal regulations stipulate that admission requires a psychiatric evaluation showing individuals are a risk to themselves or others and the approval of their legal guardians — almost always close relatives — or police officers who believe they have committed or will commit a crime.
Even these inadequate criteria are frequently ignored, researchers say.
Asked about Liao, the head nurse at Yanshi mental hospital said she could not comment due to patient confidentiality and hung up. The city’s police did not respond to faxed questions.
With no time limit on detention, and no appeals, hospitals need not release patients until or unless they choose.
“There is not much to be done about it,” said Huang Xuetao (黃雪濤), a Shenzhen-based lawyer who has acted for several detainees.
Without legal means of resolution, he appeals to whoever ordered detention and asks the media for help.
“Sometimes it works,” Huang said. “Sometimes it makes it worse.”
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