BBC Eye Investigations
BBCWhen Zhang Junjie was 17 he decided to protest outside his university about rules made by China’s government. Within days he had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital and treated for schizophrenia.
Junjie is one of dozens of people identified by the BBC who were hospitalised after protesting or complaining to the authorities.
Many people we spoke to were given anti-psychotic drugs, and in some cases electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), without their consent.
While there have been reports for decades that hospitalisation is used in China as a way of detaining dissenting citizens without involving the courts, a leading Chinese lawyer has told the BBC that the issue – which legislation sought to resolve – has recently seen a resurgence.
Junjie says he was restrained and beaten by hospital staff before being forced to take medication.
His ordeal began in 2022, after he protested against China’s harsh lockdown policies. He says his professors spotted him after just five minutes and contacted his father, who took him back to the family home. He says his father called the police, and the next day – on his 18th birthday – two men drove him to what they claimed was a Covid test centre, but was actually a hospital.
“The doctors told me I had a very serious mental disease… Then they tied me to a bed. The nurses and doctors repeatedly told me, because of my views on the party and the government, then I must be mentally ill. It was terrifying,” he told the BBC World Service. He was there for 12 days.
Junjie believes his father felt forced to hand him over to the authorities because he worked for the local government.
Just over a month after being discharged, Junjie was once again arrested. Defying a fireworks ban at Chinese New Year (a measure brought in to fight air pollution) he had made a video of himself setting them off. Someone uploaded it online and police managed to link it to Junjie.
He was accused of “picking quarrels and troublemaking” – a charge frequently used to silence criticism of the Chinese government. Junjie says he was forcibly hospitalised again for more than two months.
After being discharged, Junjie was prescribed anti-psychotic drugs. We have seen the prescription – it was for Aripiprazole, used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
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