Chinese rights defender Jie Lijian is a serial victim of the Chinese Communist Party and its proxies.
In the People’s Republic of China, he was forcibly hospitalized on three occasions, the first when he was 17 years old. The third time, in 2018, as punishment for demanding the release of innocent people from jail, Jie was detained for 52 days. Safeguard Defenders reported in 2022 that his incarceration ended only after he tried to kill himself.
From day one, the staff forced Jie to take medicine—seven or eight types of pills. They never told him the names of the drugs they were giving him. “I’d feel really sick and then a bit dizzy and my sight would blur.” Initially, he tried to resist, but he was too weak. They tied him up and injected him with a sedative….
He was given electroshock therapy three times during his 52-day illegal psychiatric detention. Each time without any anesthetic. The procedure was intensely painful….
“There was no way to leave. And I wanted to die.”
In desperation, Jie decided to try and kill himself by smashing the top of the toilet tank and slashing his wrists with the jagged pieces of porcelain…. He succeeded in cutting himself, but the staff discovered him and he didn’t die. However, his suicide attempt frightened the hospital; they didn’t want his blood on their hands.
The experience of being “drugged, abused, subjected to electroshocks and locked up on a mental ward was so traumatic that when he was released, Jie fled China.” Ending up in California, he continued his advocacy in association with the China Democracy Party and, later, the China Democracy Party International Alliance, which he leads.
Attacks in the U.S.
In November 2021, “a vehicle struck Jie while he was cycling in Rowland Heights, California, destroying his bicycle and phone and leaving him injured. Jie said the driver called him a ‘traitor’ and warned him to watch what he did.”
Two months later, Jie’s car was forced off the road. “A large man emerged carrying a long knife and stabbed at him five or six times. The blade pierced Jie’s lower jaw, causing severe bleeding and leaving him in critical condition.”
In August 2023, “an unknown attacker struck him from behind in the head while he was walking outside Los Angeles, knocking him unconscious.
“While Jie was recovering, Chinese- and English-language posts falsely announced his death, accompanied by fabricated funeral-hall images and purported memorial videos. Jie believed the material had been prepared in connection with the assault.”
In January 2026, Jie Lijian was among those pepper-sprayed by a Chinese Consulate guard, Wu Xian, in Los Angeles. Wu was arrested for the assault but released two days later. Jie and others filed suit against Wu Xian, the consulate, and the People’s Republic of China.
In May 2026, “on the eve of the 37th anniversary of the ‘June Fourth’ incident, Jie Lijian was involved in a serious car accident shortly after the visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to the United States. The other vehicle struck him twice before fleeing the scene, leaving Jie Lijian’s car nearly totaled and causing head injuries.”
“We will not be afraid”
In July 2026, in Queens, three Asian men beat Jie Lijian unconscious. He lost consciousness for two days.
“After I passed out, I crawled onto the bus, and after that I don’t remember anything…. I have been in the hospital since then; the doctor informed me that the ambulance rescued me from the bus, and I was bleeding from my head….
“In the face of the CCP’s transnational suppression, we will not be afraid.”
Also see:
The Epoch Times: “Repeatedly Targeted Anti-CCP Activist Beaten Unconscious in New York”
X: @jielijian [in Chinese]
Safeguard Defenders: “Drugged and Detained: China’s psychiatric prisons” (2022)
