China Using Psychiatric Treatment as Punishment for Political Dissident

Xing Shiku tortured ‘with chains’ and ‘electric shocks’ in psychiatric hospital

The Chinese government routinely uses psychiatric confinements as a tool to control dissidents, a Chinese human rights group said on Monday.

Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) highlighted the case of Xing Shiku, a Chinese petitioner who has been involuntarily detained at the Daowai District Psychiatric Hospital in Harbin City since February 2007.

CHRD says Xing was arrested in Beijing for filing complaints to government authorities about corruption and labor violations that occurred due to the privatization of the state-owned company where he once worked. He was then immediately transferred to the psychiatric hospital in northeast China.

The Chinese government claimed that Xing suffered from schizophrenia and “could have posed a threat to or adversely affected the maintenance of public order in Beijing.” CHRD maintains that doctors at the hospital have acknowledged that he does not suffer from any mental illness.

The group said Xing’s detention is politically motivated.