Tu Qiang (涂强), born in 1988 in Zigong, Sichuan Province, is a dissident whose case records describe repeated confinement in psychiatric hospitals following political criticism and online speech.
In a 2019 interview with 民生观察, Tu described psychiatric confinement beginning in 2016 after insulting Mao Zedong, including forced injections and later electroconvulsive treatment at West China Hospital. He also described another two-month confinement in 2018 after online posts commemorating June 4 and calling for freedom and democracy.
民生观察 reported that Tu was confined again in January 2024 at the Zigong Fifth People’s Hospital psychiatry department and that, on August 20, 2024, he wrote that he had been held there for seven months and expected long-term confinement.
Status conflict
The Tenzhu political-prisoner database, updated June 13, 2025, marks Tu as released. Rights Defense Network / 维权网 Issue 131 dated August 31, 2026 instead lists 涂强 / Tu Qiang among people detained without trial in Sichuan. Those dated sources conflict, and no source located resolves the discrepancy. His current status is therefore recorded as unknown.
Evidence limits
The confinement and treatment details are based on Tu’s own accounts and reporting by 民生观察 and related monitoring sources. No independent medical diagnosis is asserted here, and no current detention facility is inferred.
Media archive: Tu Qiang (涂强) — Media Profile & Archive