China’s psychiatric facilities are regularly used to hold citizens who publicly criticize the Chinese Communist Party, according to a human rights group.
Li Yixue, a blogger in her early 20s, has become the face of a longstanding issue in communist China: the misuse of psychiatric hospitals to suppress Beijing’s critics.
For years, China watchers and human rights groups have raised alarms about this form of abuse, and Li’s case has drawn renewed attention to the issue.
Medical experts and Li’s family members say she shows no signs of mental illness, while others question the legality of her forced confinement.
Victims have reported beatings, forced medication, and electroconvulsive therapy, among other inhumane treatments, while locked up in these facilities, according to a 2022 report by human rights watchdog Safeguard Defenders.
China’s psychiatric facilities, often called Ankang hospitals, are regularly used to detain citizens who publicly criticize the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), political dissidents, and people of faith. The Safeguard Defenders report found that more than half of those admitted to Ankang hospitals had no prior psychiatric evaluations, and nearly one-third had been hospitalized more than once.
Examples of why people end up in these hospitals vary, according to the report. One man had petitioned central authorities in 2017 because local police refused to conduct a thorough investigation into a robbery at his home. An anti-CCP activist live-streamed herself splashing ink on a portrait of CCP leader Xi Jinping in public in 2018. A veteran in 2019 sought medical compensation from central authorities for injuries sustained while serving in the People’s Liberation Army.
Li Yixue
Li, a Jiangxi Province resident, vanished in mid-December 2024 after being forced by authorities back into a psychiatric hospital. Authorities said she was released to her father on Jan. 10, but there have been no confirmed sightings or online activity since, raising widespread skepticism about the official account.
In 2022, Li spent 56 days in a psychiatric facility after accusing a local police officer of sexually assaulting her. Authorities said her allegation lacked evidence and claimed she had mental health issues.
By Sean Tseng and Shawn Lin
