Why the Chinese are beating up and even killing their doctors

A weeping doctor was paraded round his hospital by an angry mob following one young man’s recent death

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(Image credit: 2012 AFP)

SHANGHAI - In most countries, proud parents are delighted when a son or daughter decides to become a doctor when they grow up. In China, such a choice is now a source of parental trepidation: medical professionals are increasingly being threatened, humiliated, attacked and occasionally murdered by their disgruntled patients.

According to figures from the China Hospital Association, there were, on average, 27.3 serious assaults on doctors and nurses per hospital in 2012, up 35 per cent from 2006.

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Gary Jones is a China correspondent for The Week online, dividing his time between Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. He has written for The Times, The Sunday Times, The Observer, GQ and Wallpaper among others, and for newspapers in Australia, Canada and the US.