China's leaders must now take effective action. In 2000, Shenzen media exposed a series of cases in which security officials working in local businesses beat, tortured and even killed customers who complained about prices or were suspected of theft. Many women have been tortured, including being raped and sexually abused, by police who accuse them of prostitution. Police detain and torture women to extract lists of alleged clients to blackmail. Many alleged prostitutes and clients have died from torture.
Officials also use bogus psychiatric hospitalization to suppress dissent.
Xue Jifeng, a labor activist from Henan Province, was forcibly confined in Xinxiang City Psychiatric Hospital from December 1999 - June 2000 and force fed drugs. The torture of political dissidents remains commonplace. In the XUAR and Tibet, few political prisoners escape torture. In July 1999, ethnic Uighur Zulikar Memet denied allegations of separatist activities, saying that he had been tortured to confess. He showed the court signs of torture, including missing fingernails that had been pulled out.