It tells the story of a Chinese farmer, Xu Lindong, who was imprisoned in the Zhumadian Psychiatric Hospital for four years after he filed a series of complaints against the Chinese government after being angered by a land dispute. Lindong was not in the least bit deranged.
The government's reaction was to commit him to a mental hospital and, as the article says, "forge his brother's name on the signature line." He even received 54 electrical shock treatments while there, as well as routine injections of powerful drugs. Human rights activists suggest that incidents like Lindong's are not uncommon, and on the rise, because the government wants to silence troublemakers.
The Chinese government is notorious for censorship. For example, in 2009 it completely blocked Facebook. However, this incident seems unnecessarily severe. Is the Chinese government justified in its hasty imprisonment and forgery?
If you were asked to do PR for the Chinese government around the Lindong incident, what would you do?
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