Zhang Guiyun | My 18 Days in the Mental Hospital in Zhuozhou

(My application form for the examination)

My name is Zhang Guiyun, from Zhuozhou, Hebei. I am a licensed traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) doctor. I have a TCM clinic in Zhuozhou. For many years, my work has been dealing with patients, doctors, and hospitals. But I never expected that one day, I would be forcibly sent to a psychiatric hospital, and I couldn’t prove that I didn’t have a mental illness. I will never forget those 18 days.

01

Cause:
Reflecting on the flood compensation issue, but being robbed of my phone by unidentified individuals

Due to the heavy rain in the Hebei region in the summer of 2023, the flood caused severe damage to Diaowo Town, Zhuozhou City, where our village is located. Both grain farmers and aquaculture farmers suffered huge losses. In May 2024, after the flood compensation was distributed, a cement road was to be built on my sister-in-law’s farmland. My sister-in-law repeatedly blocked it and demanded to see the red line of the farmland. The village was unreasonable, so I accompanied my sister-in-law to Diaowo Town to find Secretary Liu Yang. Secretary Liu Yang didn’t receive us because he was in a meeting. We then went to the Zhuozhou Municipal Discipline Inspection Commission to find Secretary Yang Zhongqiu to reflect the situation, but we couldn’t even enter the hall of the Discipline Inspection Commission compound. The security guards blocked us outside.

My sister-in-law was at the steps of the Discipline Inspection Commission compound, and I was outside the Discipline Inspection Commission compound. We waited all night (on May 9, six cadres from the village and town violently intercepted us, and I was snatched away). Suddenly, two 120 ambulances and more than a dozen police officers appeared. The police ordered us to be forcibly taken to the 120 ambulance, and the car door was closed. My three mobile phones were also snatched by unidentified individuals, and then we were taken to the Diaowo Town Health Center. I called the police, and the police who came to the scene said that we should ask Liu Yang, the Party Secretary of Diaowo Town, for the phones. Secretary Liu Yang called Chen Chong, the cadre in charge of the village, and Chen Chong did not admit that the phones were with him. Secretary Liu Yang asked Chen Chong to help find them, but the phones have not been returned to me.

I didn’t expect to be treated like this when I reflected the problem. On May 15, we went to Zhuozhou again and reported to the Baoding Municipal Discipline Inspection Commission and the Hebei Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission, but we were turned away.

02

Sudden:
During the period of reflecting to the Central Discipline Inspection Commission, being intercepted, tracked, and forcibly taken back to Zhuozhou

On May 16, 2024, my sister-in-law and I went to the Central Discipline Inspection Commission located at No. 2 Jiayu, Yongdingmennei Street, Xicheng District, Beijing. After going through a series of package inspections and showing our ID cards, we were directly handed over to the people who received visitors from the local area in the opposite shed. After entering, we found that there were Prosecutor Wei from the Zhuozhou Municipal Procuratorate, Li Lijun from the Zhuozhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, and a police officer with a police badge, as well as an unidentified person who was illegally controlling my sister-in-law and me in the compound of the Zhuozhou Municipal Discipline Inspection Commission and the Diaowo Town government.

Although we were reluctant, we still expressed our demands. I mentioned that after the flood, the clinic’s losses were not compensated at all, and the problem of being intercepted and restricted from traveling at the high-speed rail station without reason. My sister-in-law also explained why her farmland was paved with cement roads and reflected that the village cadres violated the red line policy of farmland, and demanded that such village cadres step down.

Li Lijun from the Public Security Bureau and Prosecutor Wei contacted Secretary Liu Yang of Diaowo Town and Yang Zhongqiu of the Zhuozhou Municipal Discipline Inspection Commission on the spot, pretending that they would solve the problem and deal with the village cadres, and said that someone from Diaowo Town would come to pick us up. We felt something was wrong, and while they were not paying attention, we ran out of the shed.

Realizing that someone would intercept us, we stayed in Beijing on May 17 and the weekend and did not go out. On May 20, we went to the Central Discipline Inspection Commission again and found that Chen Chong, the cadre in charge of the village in Diaowo Town, and another man had been following and tracking us all the time. In order not to be followed by them, we said to the people in front of us: “The local interceptors are here,” and quickly passed the security check and entered the Discipline Inspection Commission’s petition hall by cutting in line. My sister-in-law and I went to our respective windows to express our demands, but the answers we got were all to handle it locally. Feeling unwilling, we went to the National People’s Congress team again. In the middle, we saw Chen Chong, the cadre in charge of the village in Diaowo Town, and another man following behind. Around 1:30 p.m., after asking the security guard of the National People’s Congress, we learned that we had to leave because we lacked materials.

(The car that forcibly took us back to Zhuozhou)

Not far from the gate of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission compound, we took a taxi and hadn’t gone far when a taxi suddenly stopped in front of our car. About five unidentified people got out of the car and forcibly dragged us out of the taxi and stuffed us into a Rongwei car, registration number JingCMJ102, parked on the side, and immediately snatched our mobile phones, my ID card, and the bag I was carrying. Afterwards, the Rongwei car, registration number JingCMJ102, drove all the way to Zhuozhou. The person driving on the road kept contacting people in Zhuozhou about where to put us and who to hand us over to.

03

Helpless:
If you don’t take the medicine, you will be tied up and have a nasogastric tube inserted, and you are forced to take psychiatric drugs

After arriving in Zhuozhou, we first went to Zhuozhou Anning Hospital, and then to Zhuozhou Ankang Hospital (after arriving at the ward, we realized it was a psychiatric hospital). The person driving the car handed my ID card, schoolbag, and our mobile phones to a person surnamed Zhao from Diaowo Town. I was forcibly taken into the ward by two male nurses, with my arms fixed. The ward was closed, and there was a locked iron door at the end of the corridor.

(Ankang Hospital, where I was locked up for 18 days)

That evening, two nurses, a man and a woman, came to the ward, took off my glasses, and it didn’t matter even if I had 800-degree myopia. They made me take medicine at night (I didn’t see a doctor, and no examinations or diagnoses were done). I asked, “Is it for stability?” The female nurse said, “It’s too low-level.” I said, “Is it anti-anxiety?” The nurse replied, “Yes.” I said, “I am a doctor, I am not sick, and I sleep very well, I don’t take it.” The male nurse said, “Insert a nasogastric tube!” and called three or four men. I realized at the time that if I didn’t obey in the psychiatric hospital, I would be tied up.

Nasogastric tube insertion is generally nasal feeding, usually entering the nasal cavity from one side of the nostril, and slowly entering the esophagus after the nasogastric tube reaches the epiglottis. The insertion depth is usually 45-55 cm, and the total length is about 105 cm, which usually causes some damage to the oral and nasal mucosa. Considering the pain and sequelae of the nasogastric tube, I chose not to have the nasogastric tube inserted and was forced to take the antipsychotic drug PLPL4mg (paliperidone), twice a day. Every time after taking the medicine, the nurse had to shine a flashlight into my mouth, forcing me to drink water, and only let me leave after confirming that the medicine was swallowed.

(Paliperidone I was forced to take)

Three or four days after I was forced to take the medicine, I clearly felt palpitations. I measured my blood pressure and heart rate every day, and my heart rate was over 100. I reported to Dean Cai, and Dean Cai said I was nervous. I said I was not nervous. During these days, I often suspected that I would be killed by this medicine, but I didn’t dare to make a fuss, because the consequence of making a fuss was to be tied up, injected, and beaten…

04

Despicable:
You can only go out if the government agrees, write a “confession” first

June 6, 2024, was the day before the registration for my physician’s qualification examination. I had reported many times before that if the registration was delayed, no one would be responsible. But the government still wanted to register me in the hospital through Qi Jiajia, the dean of Ankang Hospital, in order to prevent me from leaving, and said that I could only go home if I wrote a confession according to the government’s requirements.

“I am Zhang Guiyun from Daliu Village, Diaowo Town, Zhuozhou City. Because I had a dispute with the government, I deeply reflected on it. I will abide by the law when I go out and be a good citizen. I will not make unreasonable demands to the government, and I will not pursue this matter.” This is the template provided by the government, and I was asked to copy it, sign and press my fingerprints. Later, the government sent a message to Dean Qi Jiajia, forcing me to add another sentence, “If I interfere with the work of the government, I will be held legally responsible.”

I firmly refused to write at first. Director Liu hammered the table with his fist, and the male head nurse also threatened, “Don’t go out if you don’t write!” It was already noon at the time. They said that June 6 was the last day to register for the physician’s qualification examination. In order to save time for registration, after a long ideological struggle, I was forced to write it.

(Forcing my sister-in-law to write an untrue promise)

On the night I went out, what was even more infuriating was that in order to continue to cover up their crimes in violation of the “Mental Health Law”, the Diaowo Town government forced my brothers, sisters-in-law, and sisters to sign false promises around eight o’clock in the evening, framing me for participating in illegal religion and having a paranoid personality.

Since then, from May 18, 2024, to June 6, I, as a licensed TCM doctor, was locked up in Zhuozhou Ankang Hospital for 18 days because of “being mentally ill”. This experience will never be forgotten. I will definitely not let the relevant behind-the-scenes culprits get away with it.