68-Year-Old Guangdong Resident Dies While Detained in Psychiatric Hospital for His Faith

Mr. He Jingru, a 68-year-old resident of Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, died on May 20, 2025, while being held in a psychiatric hospital, according to Minghui.org.

In 2024, officers from the State Security Brigade of the Huidong County Public Security Bureau abducted him for practicing Falun Gong—a peaceful spiritual discipline that has been brutally persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 1999. Authorities then sent him directly to a psychiatric hospital in Huizhou. Mr. He was in good health when admitted but died under suspicious circumstances just months later. The details of his treatment and possible abuse remain unclear.

Over 25 years of persecution

Prior to his most recent detention in a psychiatric hospital, Mr. He endured over 25 years of persecution for refusing to renounce his belief in Falun Gong. After the CCP launched its nationwide suppression of the practice, he was repeatedly arrested and sentenced to a total of 18 years in prison and subjected to extreme abuse intended to break his spirit.

His persecution began with a three-year term in the Sanshui Forced Labor Camp after he traveled to Beijing to peacefully appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. He later received three consecutive five-year prison terms for raising awareness about the persecution and upholding the principles of Falun Gong—Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.

During his incarceration, Mr. He was brutally tortured: Beaten, scalded with boiling water, deprived of sleep, hung by the wrists for days, and injected with nerve-damaging drugs. These toxic injections left him mentally disoriented and physically incapacitated. In 2012, his arm was broken during a forced brainwashing session. He spent years partially paralyzed.

Even after his release in 2022, authorities forced him to stay in a senior care facility so he could be monitored around the clock. Mr. He’s long ordeal reflects the Chinese regime’s ongoing campaign to destroy Falun Gong through imprisonment, torture, and relentless psychological pressure.

Widespread psychiatric abuses

The CCP’s use of psychiatric institutions to persecute Falun Gong practitioners has been widely condemned by international human rights organizations. In 2010, the San Diego-based Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group (FGHRWG) submitted a report to the United Nations documenting 1,089 cases of psychiatric torture. Victims were forcibly injected with drugs that attacked the central nervous system, causing hallucinations, paralysis, mental breakdowns, and sometimes death.

Such abuse is not limited to psychiatric hospitals—it occurs in detention centers, forced labor camps, and prisons as well. Authorities frequently turn to chemical torture when physical methods fail, attempting to destroy practitioners’ ability to think and hold to their beliefs.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and legal scholar Robin Munro have all reported extensively on this issue. In his book China’s Psychiatric Inquisition, Munro dedicated a full chapter to the psychiatric persecution of Falun Gong, citing official hospital records.

FGHRWG has called on the global medical community to take action: ban doctors who knowingly participate in these abuses, reject publications from the more than 200 complicit hospitals, and hold individuals—especially hospital leadership—accountable for their crimes.

Psychiatric hospitals in Huizhou

Reports from inside China suggest Mr. He Jingru died in a psychiatric hospital in Huizhou City. At least two major psychiatric institutions in the area warrant urgent international scrutiny.

• Huizhou Second People’s Hospital (惠州市第二人民医院) – A major tier-three psychiatric hospital with two locations: Linghu Facility (菱湖院区): Focused on treating severe mental disorders and rehabilitation; located at No. 17 Linghu 2nd Road, Huicheng District; Honghuahu Facility (红花湖院区): Treats milder psychological disorders; located at No. 9 Fukang Road, Longfeng Subdistrict, Huicheng District.

• Huidong Dajing Psychiatric Hospital (惠东大径心理医院) – Located in Honghu Village, Daling Subdistrict, Huidong County. This facility claims to combine traditional Chinese medicine with modern psychological and physical therapies to treat a variety of psychiatric conditions.

Given the CCP’s long-standing practice of weaponizing psychiatric doctors and facilities to persecute Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience, we urge the international human rights community to launch a full investigation into these institutions. Mr. He’s death may be part of a broader pattern of politically motivated psychiatric detention and abuse. Independent oversight and accountability are urgently needed to prevent further atrocities.