On January 11th, Li Yixue from Nanchang, Jiangxi, who exposed the dark side of the Chinese Communist Party’s mental hospitals, was twice admitted to a mental hospital. After causing a social backlash, the Jiangxi authorities suddenly announced on January 11th that Li Yixue was “severely mentally ill” and had been discharged by her father. Just as this news sparked skepticism from the public, on the evening of January 11th, multiple bloggers from mainland China found Li Yixue at a hotel in Nanchang, Jiangxi. Dozens of plainclothes officers were guarding the scene, and Li Yixue shouted loudly, “The report is fabricated.” It appeared that a dispute occurred between Li Yixue’s father and the plainclothes officers when he went to the hotel to visit her.
On January 11th, the Nanchang Public Security Bureau in Jiangxi issued a notification stating that Li Yixue had been taken from the hospital by her father, emphasizing that Li Yixue was “severely mentally ill.” Auxiliary police officers arranged a hotel reservation for Li Yixue and stayed in her room overnight but did not harass Li Yixue, and so on.
On January 12th, multiple videos uploaded to platform X showed that Li Yixue appeared to be deprived of personal freedom, living under surveillance in the “Wei Mei Hotel.” On January 11th, several bloggers from Nanchang rushed to the “Wei Mei Hotel,” where Li Yixue stood in the corner of the hotel lobby shouting, “The report is false.” Police clashed with the bloggers who rushed to the hotel.
Netizens revealed that Li Yixue was being held in Room 503 of the Wei Mei Hotel in Nanchang, “watched by dozens of plainclothes officers.” After bloggers found Li Yixue, several plainclothes officers threatened and confiscated their phones, trying to prevent them from live streaming. Reports indicated that some bloggers were physically assaulted at the scene.
In a video, Li Yixue took a picture while pointing at a plainclothes officer, saying, “You hit me!” A blogger pointed at the officer, saying, “You can’t bully people here.” The blogger reassured Li Yixue, saying, “We will protect you. We specifically came to protect you.”
Li Yixue’s father spoke to the camera, saying, “This time, the announcement from the city contained a lot of falsehoods. I didn’t speak up before because… the previous announcements were not accurate, and now there are a lot of things in their (officials) announcements…”
In another video segment, on January 11th, a man presumed to be Li Yixue’s father arrived at the hotel and requested to see his daughter. Several plainclothes officers stood guard at the door, with one of them telling him, “As the guardian, you agreed to have her sent to the mental hospital.” He emphasized that it was written in the official announcement.
Li Yixue’s father told the officers, “My current identity is only a biological father, not a guardian as you claim I agreed to. I didn’t agree. I’m telling you, you’re spreading rumors!”
Following the sudden announcement by the Jiangxi authorities on January 11th that Li Yixue had been discharged by her father, on that day, a video shared by netizens showed that when they tried to visit Li’s family, they found a newly installed iron gate closed at the unit downstairs, with someone guarding it, preventing them from entering. Outside the door, several individuals suspected to be official personnel were stationed. Netizens who waited outside the door in the hope of seeing Li’s family downstairs were also driven away by official personnel. Netizens questioned whether Li Yixue was “discharged” but still not given back her freedom.
On January 12th, mainland human rights lawyer Lu Tingge reposted a chat screenshot from lawyer Fan Chen on platform X. Fan Chen stated that Li Yixue sent a video in which her father made several statements through the video rebuking the official announcement, claiming it contained a significant amount of false information and even forged his signature.