A female lawyer named Zeng Yuan in Shenzhen was sent to a psychiatric hospital three times because she reported a lawyer from the law firm she was attached to for engaging in illegal activities such as prostitution, bribery, and corruption. Another law firm she was attached to even participated in forcibly sending her to the psychiatric hospital. Zeng Yuan stated that this was the first law firm in mainland China to engage in such behavior, unprecedented in history.
Zeng Yuan, a 33-year-old female citizen of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, is a practicing lawyer. In 2020, she reported male lawyer Ming Zhenxing from the law firm she was attached to at that time for engaging in prostitution with female interns and for bribery and corruption in conducting business. As the case involved the interests of a state-owned enterprise of the lawyer’s client, the police began technical surveillance on Zeng Yuan and other related individuals to understand the situation.
Recently, Zeng Yuan told a reporter from Dajiyuan, “Ming Zhenxing spread rumors to his client that I have an unclear background and was likely planted as a spy (Ming Zhenxing believes that since my father’s personal file is unknown, then my background must be suspicious). To show off his skills, Ming Zhenxing sent me an email disclosing the content of the surveillance. This was an advanced measure he took, as he believed he could use it to showcase his abilities and apply pressure on others at any time. Therefore, I began reporting the police for irregular surveillance practices.”
In May 2020, the law firm where Zeng Yuan was attached stopped her social security benefits. After terminating her employment with the law firm, she transferred to the Beijing Law Firm.
During this period, she was detained for 20 days by the Gaoxin Police Station for reporting irregular police technical surveillance on her. Despite not obtaining any results from the questioning, she was eventually released.
Regarding the incident of irregular police surveillance, Zeng Yuan continued to report even after being detained. As a result, in September 2022, she was bound and sent to the Kangning Hospital (psychiatric hospital) by the Gaoxin Police Station in cooperation with two members of the street women’s federation.
Zeng Yuan stated that the irregular surveillance involved the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau, Nanshan Sub-bureau, and police departments from other areas. “Therefore, the police bound me and sent me to the psychiatric hospital and used torture to force me to confess how I discovered the irregular police surveillance, who my superiors were, suspecting that there was a mole. In fact, the core reason was that Ming Zhenxing leaked the positioning details, which was a serious matter approved by the head of the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department, Director Liu.”
The Gaoxin Police Station followed instructions from the Nanshan Sub-bureau of the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau to send Zeng Yuan to the psychiatric hospital. After conducting various examinations at the hospital, they found that Zeng Yuan did not meet the criteria for psychiatric illness, and she was allowed to return home the same day. The police’s plan did not succeed.
According to Zeng Yuan, her father, Zeng Zhiming, was a high-ranking official at the Shenzhen Customs. However, he never acknowledged or accepted her as his daughter since her birth, as she was a girl. He even had her personal information erased from official records by the police after she was born.
As a result, she did not receive her mother’s affection. At the age of 16, Zeng Yuan escaped from her mother’s home and met her father for the first time, requesting a safe place to stay, but was rejected. She never met any paternal relatives and longed for a family, continuing her search for them even after being detained in August 2022 until early 2023, hoping for a glimmer of hope to be accepted by her father.
In November 2022, former Kangning Hospital doctor Gao Beiling, an expert in forensic appraisals, visited Zeng Yuan’s residence under the instruction of the Nanshan Sub-bureau, inquiring about her report on police surveillance.
“I found his visit unusual because he was hailed as the top expert in forensic appraisals, indicating that the case must have been significant. After asking a few questions, I did not cooperate with the rest of the procedures, nor did I provide the results they wanted. Their intention was that if my answers posed a risk or threat to relevant departments, they could label me as mentally ill. If not, the matter would be dropped. By asking questions in this manner, they aimed to extract more information and results.”
“He asked some questions on the spot, which I suspect he then included in a report. However, this report’s process is within the police and administrative agencies, akin to using his name to endorse it. This forged appraisal report is currently not officially acknowledged by the police and other departments.”
According to the community’s assertion based on the street’s opinion, Zeng Yuan was deemed mentally ill and without family. Feeling troubled by the continuous visits and offerings from the community, Zeng Yuan rejected further contact with them after seeing their true intentions to fabricate an image of her being mentally ill and alone in order to have her sent to a psychiatric hospital, similar to what happened to Xu Xinrui in Sichuan.
“When I stopped seeing them, they became anxious and started delivering consolation items to my doorstep, which I politely refused at first. I declined their offerings via WeChat, then dialed 12345 to reject them, and even called 110 to report to the police, who refused to respond.”
The continuous delivery of consolation items by the community annoyed Zeng Yuan, prompting her to pour out a bag of rice at the police station in November 2022, which gave the police an excuse to send her to the psychiatric hospital.
“In March 2023, the police at the hospital asked me who my leader was. They believed that there must be someone instructing me behind the scenes to report the police surveillance. However, the medical records stated that I exhibited three actions: banging on the table at the police station, pouring rice at the police station entrance, and booking a hotel for the police officers.”
“The main reason for sending me to the psychiatric hospital was that Zeng’s previous law firm and the public security bureau did not want her to report them further, so they enlisted the help of the Beijing Law Firm (the law firm she was attached to at the time), the Gaoxin Police Station, and the community women’s federation to send her to the hospital. Conveniently, her father had always been unwilling to acknowledge her and wanted to pass her off to someone else, hence the involvement (of family members) in signing.”
“When representatives from the Beijing Law Firm arrived to arrange my hospitalization procedures, the medical examination results indicated that I did not have a mental illness, with no diagnosis provided. Consequently, I was discharged from the hospital.”
On the 29th day of the Chinese New Year in 2024, Zeng Yuan went to the Baoshan Town Nanshan Police Station seeking assistance to locate her relatives but was unsuccessful. Feeling that the police had failed to serve the people, she smashed the “person” part of the police station’s sign at the Gaoxin Police Station on the 30th day of the New Year, leading to her third time being sent to the Kangning Hospital in Shenzhen.
“I was detained in the hospital for 4 days without being diagnosed as mentally ill. Unable to wait for the police to come and take me, I persuaded the doctor to allow me to sign myself out of the hospital.”
Following her third hospitalization, Zeng Yuan was dismissed from the Shenzhen branch of the Beijing Law Firm at the end of 2025.
Zeng Yuan emphasized that despite not being mentally ill, she was sent to the psychiatric hospital three times, involving multiple high-level entities coordinating her hospitalization simultaneously. This marked the first instance in China’s legal sector where law firms were involved in the forced hospitalization, in collusion with senior police and judicial authorities. Her father participated in all three instances, only signing his name on the second occasion.
During her six-month interaction with the community, staff members advised Zeng Yuan to undergo disability assessments to receive tens of thousands in disability subsidies. They also suggested getting low-income support with a disability certificate, allowing her to stay in a psychiatric hospital until her death.