CHINA INCIDENTS

Beijing, Sept. 24 — A Chinese girl aged 16 has been detained after she confessed to starving her mother to death, allegedly to avenge being sent by her parents to a notoriously harsh treatment center for Internet addiction, according to local media reports Saturday.

The teenaged girl, identified by the police as Chen Xinran (not her real name), surrendered to authorities in the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang on Sept. 16, saying she had tied her mother to a chair for a week and denied her food.

During this period, she sent photos and videos of her mother by phone to an aunt, demanding money to release her mother, but the latter’s condition had already deteriorated significantly by the time Chen received the money.

Chen called an ambulance and fled when she received the money, but upon learning of her mother’s death, she handed herself in to the police. In an earlier instance, the girl had also stabbed her father, who was then hospitalized.

Chen said she sought revenge against her parents, who forcibly admitted her into a controversial recovery facility for Internet-addicts in the eastern province of Shangdong.

Former patients have criticized the center repeatedly for the brutality of methods employed, such as beatings and electric shocks.

Several media outlets and the active online community in the country have shifted the debate onto the center and its activities.

The institution heads reject accusations of corporal punishment and refuse to speak to the press or allow entry into their premises. Local authorities have assured the public that the center will be investigated.

Over the last few years, youth rehabilitation centers in China simulating military training camps have multiplied, providing an option to parents without the financial means for other types of treatment, such as psychotherapy. EFE