Police in China detained the father of a woman imprisoned for splashing ink on a poster of President Xi Jinping on Wednesday as he tried to visit her at a psychiatric facility.
Hong Kong Free Press reported on Thursday that Dong Jianbiao, father of anti-government activist Dong Yaoquiong, visited the Hunan Zhuzhou psychiatric facility with his two lawyers but police soon took him away.
According to Wen Donghai, one of the human rights lawyers who accompanied Dong to the facility, police accused Dong of harming public security by creating an explosion. He also claimed that hospital staff demanded proof that Dong was the girl’s father and that Wen had the right to represent him, both of which he provided.
The day before he was detained, Dong released a statement to say he did not believe his daughter suffered from a mental illness and she should be released from the hospital.
“I wish to visit my daughter. I wish to view her medical records in their entirety,” he wrote. “Even if there is a medical condition needing treatment, I do not give my consent for my daughter to be treated at the Zhuzhou No. 3 Hospital. I want to take my daughter home.”
Dong’s daughter, Dong Yaoqiong, was arrested last month after she live-streamed herself splashing paint on a Chinese Communist Party propaganda poster and declaring her opposition to “authoritarian tyranny.”
“I am in the Lujiazui district of Shanghai right now, and that’s the Haihang building just behind me,” Dong said in her video. “It’s pretty early, and I think everyone is still on their way to work.”
“There is a portrait of Xi Jinping behind me,” she continued. “What I want to say is that I am using my real name to oppose Xi Jinping’s tyranny and dictatorship, and the oppressive brain control perpetrated on me by the Chinese Communist Party.”
She was later detained by police after posting photos of uniformed men outside her house preparing to arrest her.
“Right now there are a group of people wearing uniforms outside my door,” she wrote. “I’ll go out after I change my clothes. I did not commit a crime. The people and groups that hurt me are the ones who are guilty.”
Chinese authorities have repeatedly targeted government critics by claiming they suffer from a “mental illness.” Just last month, local government officials interrogated and threatened a man who posted online criticisms of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, claiming he needed treatment for a mental disorder.
To help consolidate Xi Jinping and the overall power of the state, Chinese officials constructed a system of “stability maintenance” to help root out all government dissent. The policy involves close monitoring of all anti-government activist and social media activity, as well as suppression of artistic expression and complete control over all educational institutions.
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