A longtime Chinese dissident committed to a psychiatric hospital after displaying a banner in Tiananmen Square on the third anniversary of the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations has been freed after 13 years, a human rights group said yesterday.
Wang Wanxing (
The group said the release was timed ahead of a visit to China in late August by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour.
Wang was warned not to speak of his experiences or he would be returned to the asylum, Human Rights Watch said.
Wang, a Beijing worker, was arrested in Tiananmen Square on June 3, 1992, when he tried to unfurl a protest banner. He was asking the ruling Communist Party to reevaluate its condemnation of the 1989 democracy movement and to compensate him for past political persecution for criticizing the radical leaders of the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution.
Wang was diagnosed with paranoia when he entered Ankang, a facility run by Beijing police, but family and independent observers have said he is lucid and stable.
He was released briefly in 1999 but was forced to return to Ankang after he said he might publicly discuss his confinement with foreign reporters.
"Wang's release is welcome news, but it highlights the fate of hundreds of other political detainees forced into psychiatric care in China for no good medical reason," said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, in a statement. "It is time for China's leaders to decide that their `modernization' drive should include an end to barbaric practices such as using psychiatric facilities and medically unnecessary drugs to punish those with different political views."
According to Human Rights Watch, Wang had kind words for some of the doctors and nurses at the asylum, but described others as being "basically sadistic" in nature.
For the first seven years, Wang said he was held in a general ward with 50 to 70 inmates but was moved to one with "severely psychotically disturbed inmates, most of whom had committed murder" during the last five years of his stay.
"The extent of patient-on-patient violence in this ward was terrifying," Human Rights Watch said in a statement, citing Wang's testimony. "He frequently had to force himself to stay awake all night to avoid sudden and unprovoked inmate attacks."
Staff would use shock treatment to punish difficult patients and make other inmates watch, the group said.
"These reports are credible and disturbing," Adams said.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS