Two years ago, Cao Maobing attempted to organize his fellow workers at a state-owned silk factory into a trade union. He was sent to the No. 4 psychiatric hospital in Yancheng [China] the day after he spoke to Western reporters. His fellow workers, according to an American who knows Cao, described him warmly: “Mr. Cao is an upright, kind, and law-abiding citizen. He is a brave and intelligent worker. He made a lot of personal sacrifice to help other workers to uphold their right to basic living.” Cao’s wife said he was being forcibly medicated. “He’s absolutely not insane and refuses to take the medicine. But eventually they force him to take it.” She said she was told to leave the hospital after her husband was medicated. According to other reports, he was also given electroshock treatment on several occasions. Cao was released after six months and has never returned to trade union activity.
JONATHAN MIRSKY
(U.S. journalist), “China’s Psychiatric Terror,”
New York Review of Books,
27 February 2003.
The title quote to this blog entry is from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
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