10.10.2007 - Source: Congressional-Executive Commission on China

Under the new regulation public security officials may remove a mentally ill person to a mental health center only if that person ``harms or poses a serious threat to public safety, a person's life, or property.'' ("Annual Report 2007") [ID 21412]

"In December 2006, the Beijing Municipal People's Congress issued a new Regulation on Mental Health. On its face, the new regulation prohibits local police from arbitrarily detaining the city's mentally ill as Beijing prepares to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.1 Under the new regulation, which went into effect in March 2007, public security officials may remove a mentally ill person to a mental health center only if that person ``harms or poses a serious threat to public safety, a person's life, or property.'' 2 The precise meaning of these words and how they are to be interpreted remain unclear. The new regulation requires that at least two mental health doctors make determinations of medical necessity for involuntary hospital admission. It also provides for review of involuntary admission by a review body. On these points the regulation is not dissimilar from the UN Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness and for the Improvement of Mental Health Care.3 However, while the UN Principles provide that the review body complete its review ``as soon as possible'' and ``in accordance with expeditious procedures,'' the Beijing regulation requires that the review be completed ``within three months''--a period of time that could accomplish the purpose of removing persons from the streets for the duration of the 2008 Olympic Games (August 8- 24, 2008) or longer, without violating the letter of the law."

Document(s): Open document

10.10.2007 - Source: Congressional-Executive Commission on China

Discrimination against hepatitis B (HBV) carriers remains widespread ("Annual Report 2007") [ID 21414]

"Yet discrimination against HBV carriers remains widespread. Even though experts and Chinese officials have publicly stated that hepatitis B is not infectious in most work and school situations, many people believe that it is and refuse to hire HBV carriers or interact with them on those grounds.38 A 2005 China Foundation for Hepatitis Prevention and Control survey, covering 583 hepatitis B patients in 18 provinces, found not only that a majority of Chinese physicians do not have adequate knowledge of hepatitis B or of ways to prevent and treat the disease, but also that 52 percent of the respondents had faced discrimination in employment and education.39 In November 2005, two universities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) suspended 156 students, diagnosed as hepatitis B positive in their matriculation medical examinations, from their studies for a year.40 Students formed an action group and distributed fliers to protest this decision, and one student filed the first hepatitis B discrimination lawsuit in the XUAR against her university, Xinjiang Agricultural University.41 The student eventually withdrew her case as university authorities allowed her to resume her studies amid widespread media coverage, and support from NGOs and concerned individuals.42 As of December 2006, the other students were reportedly still not able to return to school."

Document(s): Open document

06.03.2007 - Source: US Department of State

Conditions for persons with disabilities lag far behind legal dictates ("Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2006") [ID 19164]

"The law protects the rights of persons with disabilities and prohibits discrimination; however, conditions for such persons lagged far behind legal dictates, failing to provide persons with disabilities with access to programs designed to assist them. According to the official press, all local governments have drafted specific measures to implement the law.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs and the China Disabled Persons Federation, a government-organized civil association, were the main entities responsible for persons with disabilities. According to the China Disabled Persons' Federation, there were 60 million persons with disabilities. According to government statistics, 3,335 educational and vocational centers provided training and job-placement services for persons with disabilities. During the year 572,000 persons with disabilities received education or training. However, some 1.2 million urban and 3.4 million rural persons with disabilities were unemployed. Nationwide, 275,000 school-age children with disabilities did not attend school. Nearly 100,000 organizations exist, mostly in urban areas, to serve those with disabilities and protect their legal rights. The government, at times in conjunction with NGOs, sponsored programs to integrate persons with disabilities into society. However, misdiagnosis, inadequate medical care, stigmatization, and abandonment remained common problems.

According to reports, doctors frequently persuaded parents of children with disabilities to place their children in large government-run institutions, where care was often inadequate. Those parents who chose to keep children with disabilities at home generally faced difficulty finding adequate medical care, day care, and education for their children. Government statistics showed that almost one-quarter of persons with disabilities lived in extreme poverty. Unemployment among adults with disabilities remained a serious problem. Standards adopted for making roads and buildings accessible to persons with disabilities were subject to the Law on the Handicapped, which calls for their "gradual" implementation; compliance with the law was lax. Students with disabilities were discriminated against in access to education. The law permits universities legally to exclude otherwise qualified candidates from higher education.

The law forbids the marriage of persons with certain acute mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia. If doctors find that a couple is at risk of transmitting disabling congenital defects to their children, the couple may marry only if they agree to use birth control or undergo sterilization. The law stipulates that local governments must employ such practices to raise the percentage of healthy births. Media reports publicized the forced sterilization of mentally challenged teenagers in Nantong, Jiangsu Province."

Document(s): Open document

2006 - Source: World Health Organization

Hunan Province: Report on mental health system (policy and legislative framework, mental health services, mental health in primary health care, human resources, public education) ("WHO-AIMS Report on Mental Health System in Hunan Province of the People's Republic of China") [ID 21744]

Document(s): Open document

04.2005 - Source: UK Home Office

Country Report April 2005 - Psychiatric Treatment ("Country Report - April 2005") [#31975],  [ID 4469]

"Psychiatric Treatment

5.107 As reported in the South China Morning Post on 15 January 2005, “According to Ministry of Health figures, China has 16,055 psychiatrists - one for every 87,500 people. This figure doesn't reflect disparities in rural areas, where qualified psychiatric care is non-existent.” [17i]

5.108 According to the same source many hospitals don’t have real psychiatrists. Instead they have neurologists and other doctors who have been briefly retrained and then sit and listen to patients before writing prescriptions. [17i]

5.109 As noted by the WHO Project Atlas (a project of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Dependence, WHO, Geneva) in their Country Profile for China – available via their website:

“Among all the cities of China, Shanghai has the most developed psychiatric setup. It includes community follow-up programmes, guardianship networks, work therapy stations, mental health services in factories, day hospitals, night hospitals, family support groups. Services at each of the three levels-municipal, district and grass-root level are available” [8c]

5.110 The same source also noted:

“Prior to 1980s there were no psychiatric services in most general hospitals and patients were treated in mental hospitals. However, with increasing prevalence of psychiatric disorders the government called for developing psychiatric services including psychotherapy facilities in general hospitals. WHO has been involved in developing the services and mental health policy in Zhejiang province and one of the goal [sic] is to develop a 3 year mental health plan for that province.” [8c]

5.111 As reported by the official China Daily newspaper on 1 September 2004, 287,000 people commit suicide in China every year. According to the same source, “In terms of suicide attempts, rural areas outnumber urban areas and males outnumber females.” [14n]

5.112 According to the USSD Report 2004:

“According to foreign researchers, the country had 20 "ankang" institutions (high-security psychiatric hospitals for the criminally insane) directly administered by the Ministry of Public Security. Some dissidents, persistent petitioners, and others were housed with mentally ill patients in these institutions. "Patients" in these hospitals were reportedly given medicine against their will and forcibly subjected to electric shock treatment. The regulations for committing a person into an ankang facility were not clear.” [2j] (Section 1 d.)"

Document(s): Open document

10.2003 - Source: UK Home Office

Country Assessment - October 2003 - Mental Illness ("Country Report - October 2003") [#49232],  [ID 4488]

"Mental illness

5.141. Psychiatric treatment for schizophrenia in China. There is a well-established system of psychiatric hospitals and institutes within China. Residential, long-stay institutions are known as psychiatric welfare institutions (jingshenbingren fuliyuan) and complement other welfare institutions (social welfare institutions - shehui tuanti; child welfare institutions - ertong fuliyuan). People with chronic mental illnesses may be found in the social welfare institutions, primarily because of the relative scarcity of the dedicated psychiatric welfare institutions.

5.142. The Public Security Bureau maintains twenty psychiatric institutions, known as Ankang ("peace and health") institutions, for inmates deemed to be criminally insane. PRC claims ten to twenty per cent of all mentally ill people in China pose a "serious danger" to society, and thus need institutional care.

5.143. The Chinese psychiatric hospital community has a low ratio of professional psychiatrists to head of population, with 13,000 psychiatrists serving a population of 1.3 billion. Other figures are put at 3,000 serving 1.3 billion. Mentally ill patients are held officially by PRC to number 16 million, but non-PRC commentators estimate the number may be as high as 48 million. Societal disinclination to seek help for mental illness is gradually changing.

5.144. The Chinese pharmaceutical industry does produce many generic drugs found in the UK under licence (and sometimes, without licence). The generic atypical anti-psychotic olanzapine has been approved for marketing in China since December 1999, under the Eli Lilly brand name of Zyprexa. The generic had been available for research and development under licence, as a compound, in Hong Kong since November 1998.

5.145. Suicide is seen to be an increasing social problem, with the attendant health care concern of mental illness. China has a suicide rate of 250,000 suicides a year (287,000 in research released in February 2002) and an estimated 2 million attempted suicides.

5.146. Increasing rates of mental health problems has led to the introducion of the first local mental health legislation in China being formulated in Shanghai in June 2001, to enable local initiatives to work. Likewise an overhaul of national legislation on mental health care was announced in October 2001. The review hopes to lessen the stigma felt by China's 16 million registered people with mental health problems.

5.147. 30 million children under the age of 17 years are held to have behavioural and psychological problems.
[...]

5.82. A list of drugs commonly used to treat mental illness and information on the ratio of psychiatric beds and professionals to population can be found by clinking on the following link: http://www.cvdinfobase.ca/mh-atlas/

5.83. China spends approximately 2.35 per cent of its health budget on caring for people with mental illness."

Document(s): Open document

10.2003 - Source: UK Home Office

Country Assessment - October 2003 - People with Disabilities ("Country Report - October 2003") [#49232],  [ID 4489]

"5.151. Rehabilitation programs for people with disabilities are in evidence organised by all the five tiers of administration in PRC (namely, at national, provincial, city/county, district/township and neighbourhood/village).

5.152. The disabled population numbers over 60 million; subdivided into six main categories - 1. Hearing loss (20.57) 2. Mental retardation (11.82) 3. Physical disabilities (8.77) 4. Visual disabilities (8.77) 5. Psychiatric disabilities (2.25) and Multiple disabilities (7.82). There is a 25 percent urban / 75 percent rural split in population. 45 percent of individuals were of working age and in 1997, 70 percent of that subgroup living in urban areas were in employment.

5.153. The key goal of the rehabilitation services is to bring the disabled person back into the workforce. In 1998, 53 percent of all disabled individuals were self-employed.

5.154. Changes to the social security system were passed by the Standing Committee of China's State Council, ensuring local payment of minimum levels of social security benefits. Disabled people are given to be 60 million in number; 4 million people have been assisted with rehabilitation over the past ten years. In the same period, 73% found employment in 1999 as opposed to less than 50% in 1989. After a government drive, a reduction from 17 million to 10.6 million below the poverty line this year was claimed. In the same reforms, the elderly are to be given "vouchers" for choice of residential centres. The China Disabled Persons' Federation, headed by Deng Pufang, however maintains that 320,000 people with disabilities have recently lost their jobs, and the legal quota of 1.5% % of workforce places reserved for people with disabilities is being flouted."

Document(s): Open document

10.2003 - Source: UK Home Office

Country Assessment - October 2003 - Tuberculosis ("Country Report - October 2003") [#49232],  [ID 4492]

"5.140. The PRC has reportedly the second largest TB problem after India. Deaths from TB are currently, again reportedly, around 250,000 a year. An adviser on China to the World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated that 40 percent of the PRC population are carriers of TB, further estimating that 5 percent of the population will ultimately die from the disease. Work is currently being undertaken by NGOs such as Medicin Sans Frontiers (MSF), developing the usage of a treatment known as Directly Observed Therapy, Short course (dots). It is a drug therapy given and monitored directly by the agency over an eight month period, at a cost of US$30 per patient, with a claimed 95 percent success rate."

Document(s): Open document

10.2003 - Source: UK Home Office

Country Assessment - October 2003 - Other issues ("Country Report - October 2003") [#49232],  [ID 4493]

"Organ removal

5.155. In recent years, credible reports have alleged that organs from some executed prisoners are removed and transplanted. Officials have confirmed that executed prisoners are among the sources of organs for transplant, but deny that their trade exists. There is no national legislation governing organ donations, but officials assert that consent is required from prisoners or their relatives before organs are removed.

5.156. The US State Department and others have revived debate over organ harvesting after Wang Guoqi, a former employee of the PAP General Division Hospital in Tianjin, claimed in June 2000 that skin and corneas of over 100 exectuted prisoners were harvested. The Chinese government retailated that Wang had fabricated the story in order to enhance his asylum claim in the US.
[...]
Heart transplants

5.148. The current cost of a heart transplant in PRC is up to 400,000 Yuan (US$ 50,000 = Ł28,500). There is a waiting list of over 250,000 patients. China Daily maintains that the limited supply of suitable organs is a main factor in the high price of transplants.

Iodine Deficiency Disorder (IDD)

5.149. IDD is a nutritional disorder that can cause mental problems, miscarriages and pre-mature births. IDD has previously been a challenge to healthcare in China, with the PRC claim that over 80 percent of the nation's 10 million cases of mental disability are reportedly a result of IDD. The PRC has taken part in UN joint initiatives throughout the 1990s to wipe out IDD by year 2000 globally. The state Council has issued several directives that have ensured that 93 percent of the population now have access to ionised salt to be added in cooking as a nutritional supplement.

Health promotion initiatives

5.150. Centring around 28 October 2000 as Men's Health Day, the PRC authorities launched a men's health awareness promotion in 16 main cities, particularly addressing rising rates of heart disease and diabetes."

Document(s): Open document