Xu Wu.
Xu was taken away by unidentified men on April 27 after finishing an interview with a TV station in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province. The men, who were not wearing uniforms and who produced no official documentation, led him away after he left the TV station.
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Xu Wu. |
According to reports, he is currently being confined in a hospital affiliated to the Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corp.
His continued confinement has captured the attention of critics.
"Police have the right to take away Xu if Xu was a suspect but, as a man with a mental illness, which is what the hospital says he is, he should only be sent back to hospital by doctors or his family," said Gu Haowei, a Guangdong-based lawyer.
Cases in which law enforcement officers have abused their power and committed a healthy person to a mental health facility have made the headlines in recent years.
Xu Lindong, a farmer from Henan province, was confined to a mental health facility for almost seven years after he complained to the central government between 1997 and 2003 on behalf of a friend with disabilities, whose land had been occupied by a third party.