Rights Activist Held in Psychiatric Facility in China’s Shandong Province

Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong have formally arrested prominent rights activist Li Qiaochu, and are holding her in a psychiatric hospital in Linyi city, RFA has learned.

Li, who was recently given the Cao Shunli Memorial Award for her rights activism, was initially detained on Feb. 6 on suspicion of “subversion of state power,” and held at the Linyi Detention Center.

Her detention came after she posted details of torture allegations by her partner, the detained rights activist Xu Zhiyong, and rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi, to social media.

Ding’s wife, Luo Shengchun, said Li’s family had received the news from her lawyer.

“[The lawyer] told her family that she has been arrested and locked up in the East District People’s Hospital,” Luo told RFA.

“The residential compound where her family lives is under heavy guard, with plainclothes officers hanging around their home,” she said. “Her parents are pretty timid, and won’t let anyone come and visit.”

Luo said the authorities had much to gain from keeping Li behind bars.

“Part of it is stepping up the pressure on Xu Zhiyong, but the most important thing is that they want to silence her,” she said.

The overseas-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network, which gave the Cao Shunli award to Li, said she was likely also being targeted in retaliation for her engagement with United Nations human rights mechanisms.

Li, who was diagnosed with depression two years ago, needs long-term medication, prompting concerns about her physical and mental health in detention, Luo said.

“She had stopped taking her medication because she thought she could fight it through her strength of character and psychological counseling,” Luo said. “Just before she was detained, we were trying to persuade her to go back to the doctor and start taking it again.”

“She was in a really bad state just before she was detained,” she said.

A form of leverage

Beijing-based rights activist Hu Jia, who knows Li, said the authorities could use her need for medication against her.

“Li Qiaochu told me … that she needs those meds, because she gets into a terrible psychological state without them,” Hu said. “The people interrogating her have used her need for medication as a form of leverage before.”

Hu said Li had managed to find energy to carry on the struggle in spite of the depression and the authorities’ mistreatment of her.

“I felt that Li Qiaochu was pretty scarred, but kept fighting,” Hu said. “She may have experienced fear, and she had her psychological challenges, but she always seemed to stay in touch with her own life force, enough to keep speaking out for justice.”

Hu said Li was the key to the CCP’s ability to keep its nationwide operation targeting political dissidents who attended a Dec. 13, 2019 gathering in Xiamen under wraps.

Li, 30, is also a long-term campaigner against gender-based violence and for labor rights.

In 2017, Li Qiaochu volunteered to provide information and resources to affected migrant workers when Beijing authorities forcibly removed them from the city, CHRD said.

She also boosted the visibility of China’s #MeToo movement by compiling data on sexual harassment, and campaigned against a culture of long hours in the workplace.

Reported by Gao Feng for RFA’s Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. https://www.rfa.org

Escaping from Scam Center on Cambodia’s Bokor Mountain

Young people being deceived into forced labor by criminal gangs, primarily involving illegal work in Chinese-controlled special zones in Cambodia, has become a pressing issue not only in Vietnam but across Southeast Asia.

Read More

UN Security Council Meets to Discuss Children and Armed Conflict

Vanessa Frazier, Permanent Representative of Malta to the United Nations, introduces a resolution at the Security Council meeting on children and armed conflict.

Read More

10 Shocking Revelations from Bangladesh Commission’s Report About Ex-PM Hasina-Linked Forced Disappearances

Macabre killings, casual torture, misdirection and snooping were part of “the anatomy of enforced disappearances” linked to deposed Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, an inquiry commission said in its first report.

Read More

Migration Dynamics Shifting Due to New US Administration New Regional Laws

In 2024, there was a slowdown in the number of migrants traveling from Latin America to the United States, in part due to new policies and controls put in place in the so-called transit countries that migrants pass through on their way north. Migration dynamics are being reshaping by these measures as well as the new U.S. presidential administration’s promises of mass deportations.

Read More

UN Security Council Meets to Discuss the Maintenance of International Peace and Security and Artificial Intelligence

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State of the United States of America, chairs the United Nations Security Council meeting on Maintenance of International Peace and Security and Artificial Intelligence.

Read More

Winter Brings New Challenges for Residents living in Ukraine’s Donetsk Region

The front line is continually shifting in the Donetsk region of Eastern Ukraine, and Russian shelling is causing more and more damage to nearby cities.Active fighting is putting residents in danger in Dobropillia, while residents of Kostyantynivka, around 7 kilometers from the contact line, frequently have disruptions in heating fuel.

Read More

Permanent Representative of Israel Briefs Press at UN Headquarters

Danny Danon, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, briefs reporters prior to the United Nations Security Council meeting on the Middle East.

Read More

Hospitals Overwhelmed in Vanuatu as Death and Damage Toll Mounts from Quake

Vanuatu on Wednesday took stock of damage from a powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake that killed at least 14 people and collapsed buildings in the capital, as the first trickle of international assistance began arriving in the disaster-prone Pacific nation.

Read More

Subscribe Our You Tube Channel

Fighting Fake News

Fighting Lies

For More

Announcement

We as Professional Journslists with experience over 15 to 20 years offers Copy Editing Services for small or mid sized publication/digital publication around the World with effordable prices.We hav-