ankang

United Nations: Confinement of Petitioner Xing Shiku in Psychiatric Hospital Amounts to Arbitrary Detention

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) held that the incarceration of petitioner Xing Shiku in a psychiatric hospital amounts to arbitrary detention. Chinese public security officials committed Xing in the Daowai District Psychiatric Hospital in Harbin, Heilongjiang on account of his frequent trips to Beijing to protest local corruption and the privatization of the state-owned company where he once worked.

Ankang Psychiatric Detention Centers and China's New Mental Health Law

In most countries, mental health facilities are places of refuge for those who are mentally ill. In China, however, this is not necessarily the case. The Ankang mental health hospitals in China have long been utilized by the state to involuntarily confine those who are considered “troublemakers” by relatives, local police, and the Communist Party. In reality, the Ankang (安康) is a component of China’s vast system of arbitrary detention institutions.