Forensics Professor Apologies for Saying 99% of Petitioners Mentally Ill

上访户99%有精神问题? 北大孙东东言论遭炮轰致歉

Xinhua News, 2009-04-07

Responding to internet and street protests denouncing him, Sun Dongdong, head of Beijing University's forensics department, apologized for and partially retracted his earlier statements that 99% of “habitual petitioners” have “paranoid-type mental disorders.” He had also justified the forced hospitalization of such petitioners, noting that“they disturb social order” and “the problems they report have actually all been solved.” Sun's remarks and the resultant protests—which caught the attention of the Western media (Wall Street Journal article)—have made clear that “in addition to administrative abuses of power, the random and careless determination of mental illness by experts like Sun” is also responsible for the unjust hospitalization of petitioners on the pretense of mental illness.