Chinese officials are increasingly medicating “troublemakers” and forcing them into psychiatric hospitals to silence dissenters, an investigation has revealed.

Citizens who openly protest or criticise authorities have been admitted to hospitals against their will, given antipsychotic drugs, and in some cases even subjected to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), according to the BBC World Service.

Although this has long been an issue, with a group of citizen journalists tracking more than 200 cases involving people being wrongfully hospitalised between 2013 and 2017, there are concerns that there has been a recent resurgence of incidents.

Huang Xuetao, a Chinese lawyer, told the BBC: “I have come across lots of cases like this. The police want power while avoiding responsibility. Anyone who knows the shortcomings of this system can abuse it.”

He added that although the 2013 Mental Health Law of China – which made it illegal to treat anyone who is not mentally unwell – aimed to curb this sort of maltreatment, a weakening of checks and balances has left the system open to abuse.

International agencies have also raised concerns about the state of human rights across the vast country. Last week Human Rights Watch warned that “ten years into President Xi Jinping’s rule repression [has] deepened”.