Psychiatric repressions in China

From September 14th, for a period of one week, police in Shanghai arrested more than a hundred people about whom local leaders had complained to the authorites. They threatened at least one of the prisoners with forced psychiatric treatment if he did not comply.

According to the group "Human Rights in China", arrests began on September 14th. After police arrested prosecutor Zhang Fenfen, he refused to be photographed and fingerprinted. Police beat him and threatened him with forced psychiatric treatment. He twice before underwent psychiatric hospitalization after a court found him to have an "obstructsionist personality".

On September 15th, the police arrested human rights activist Mao Hengfeng, who, beginning in 1988 was repeatedly placed in camps and psychiatric hospitals because of protests against the policy of forced control over the birth rate. Both reported that while in the psychiatric hospital they received injections of neuroleptic preparations and electroshock therapy.

According to Chinese human rights activists, Hengfeng's husband, Wu Xiewei was also arrested. According to some reports, they have been conditionally released from police custody, PRIMA-News Agency reported.