ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the current normative framework of mental health detention and treatment under China’s first national Mental Health Law (MHL). It addresses the adult guardianship system, and highlights the positive changes introduced by recent law reform. To understand the impact of this law reform in practice, it is necessary to move beyond a doctrinal examination of the law. The municipal regulations and the MHL adopt different thresholds for service users in enjoying and exercising these rights. Article 36 provided the exercise of the right to information and the right to decision-making should be on the premise that the patient retains insight. Before moving to consider the MHL, the chapter considers the changing standards of detention and involuntary treatments under the MHL’s predecessors. Medical protective admissions are mostly decided by family members, without any requirement of evident harm or dangerousness to themselves or others.
