BBC investigation: Chinese schools where they "correct" rebellious teenagers

A BBC Eye investigation has uncovered numerous allegations of physical abuse in schools, and cases of young people being abducted and placed in these institutions.

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Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

14.12.2025. 08:44h

Mengchen Zheng, Jack Lau and Ankur Shah

BBC Global China Unit and Eye of Investigation

Warning: This report contains details of physical and sexual abuse and suicidal thoughts.

Baobao's heart still beats faster as soon as she smells the earth after the rain.

He reminded her of the military exercises behind locked gates - and the constant fear that marked each of her days at the Lizheng Quality Education School.

When she was 14, for six months she barely left a red-and-white building in a remote Chinese village where instructors tried to “cure” young people whose families considered them rebellious or problematic.

Students who were disobedient were beaten so severely that they could not sleep on their backs or sit for days, she says.

"Every moment was pure agony," says Baobao, who is now 19 and speaks under a pseudonym for fear of reprisals.

She says she has considered suicide, and knows that other students have tried to take their own lives.

"Raped and beaten"

A BBC Eye investigation uncovered numerous allegations of physical abuse at this and other schools in the same network, and cases of young people being abducted and placed in these institutions.

Corporal punishment has been banned in China for decades, but we have collected testimonies from 23 former students who claim they were beaten or forced to do extreme amounts of exercise.

One student says she was raped, and two others, including Baobao, claim they were sexually assaulted or mistreated, all by instructors at the school.

Secretly filmed footage shows staff posing as authorities to forcibly transfer young people to their facilities.

Thirteen students claim they were abducted, with their parents' permission, by school employees posing as police officers or officials.

The testimonies – from interviews conducted by the BBC World Service, to statements collected by activists, to police and state media reports – relate to five schools.

They are part of a network of at least 10 schools, all of which are led by - or closely associated with - a military veteran named Li Zheng.

The centers are part of a booming industry that promises worried parents that military-style discipline will solve all their problems with unruly young people, internet addiction, teenage dating and depression, as well as gender and sexual identity.

Some parents even send children over the age of 18, who are adults in the eyes of the law.

A series of allegations of abuse, both at Li Zheng's schools and elsewhere, have made headlines in China in recent years.

In a few cases, arrests have been made or institutions have been closed, but schools can quickly reopen under a different name or in a different location because this sector is difficult to regulate.

The BBC learned that Li was arrested earlier this year, but we discovered that his associates had recently opened a new school.

Companies and individuals working in the network either could not be reached or declined to comment.

The Chinese embassy in the UK told the BBC that all educational institutions are required to comply with the regulations.

"Extremely severe" concussion

Baobao says her mother took her to Lizheng Quality Education School in Hunan province when she started skipping classes, which sparked arguments that further worsened their already strained relationship.

Her mother left while they were taking her around the school, she says, and then she realized they weren't letting her leave.

"They told me that if I was obedient, I might be allowed to go out."

Baobao initially tried to kick or punch the instructors, she says, but decided to calm down when they tried to tie her up with the laces from her own shoes.

She was later searched.

She describes the way it was done as sexual assault.

"For me, it was deeply offensive... She touched all my sensitive spots."

She says her mother paid about 40.000 yuan ($5.700) for six months of stay at the institution and that she did not receive any school lessons.

Very few discipline schools offer them, and those that do charge extra for them.

This school is still active, now known as Quality Education for Teenagers, with around 300 students, aged eight to 18.

A woman who presented herself as a parent considering enrolling a fictitious 15-year-old son secretly took the footage there earlier this year.

She told them that he smokes, goes out partying, and drives a car.

She was shown locked gates on the staircase, metal bars along the open-air hallways, and security cameras recording the dormitories where children rest, change, and shower.

A staff member told her that it would take at least six months to improve the teenager's behavior, but under a "three-year guarantee" she could send him back, paying only for food and lodging, if he relapsed into his old ways.

She was told not to tell him anything about the new school.

"When we arrange a takeover, we tell them a white lie," said a staff member.

She explained that instructors posing as officials from the "internet regulator" said they needed him to help them with their investigation and took him to the center.

"If that doesn't work, a few instructors will just tie him up and carry him to the vehicle," she said.

Another former student, Zheng Enshu, now 20, says she had a similar experience when she was taken to another school in the network.

Then, at the age of 19, she ran away from home, unhappy with her parents' refusal to accept her transgender identity and decision to live as a woman – she was registered as male at birth.

She says she had returned for a family visit to her grandmother's grave when three men claiming to be police officers appeared, telling her that her details had been used in a scam.

"They forcibly dragged me into the car. My parents stood by as they took me away," she says.

She was taken to the Shengbo Youth Psychological Training and Development School in Hunan, where she says she was beaten, lost hearing in one ear, and was later raped.

In secretly filmed footage from the school Baobao attended, a staff member says there is no beating: "We are changing the behavior of the youth through military training and counseling."

But Baobao and Enshu describe a very different experience.

"Corporal punishment is constantly being carried out," says Baobao.

"If your dance or military boxing is not precise enough, or is poorly executed, you will be punished."

She says that the instructors use a pipe, which they swing above her head, after which they "bring it down forcefully" onto her classmates.

"The place where you get hit will turn black immediately. You'll be covered in bruises."

Footage obtained by the BBC and authenticated by the BBC, taken at another of Li Zheng's schools, shows instructors raising a barbell high above their heads and punching students in the face.

Enshu says students were forced to do "enormous" amounts of physical exercise.

She says that instructions for performing exercises such as push-ups "can start with a thousand prescribed repetitions."

She also says she was attacked in her own dormitory by a night shift instructor.

"He grabbed me by the hair and dragged me across the floor, then sexually assaulted me."

Baobao says she considered committing suicide, but realized she would be caught in the hours while she was dying.

She says that one of her friends tried to kill herself, but instead of taking her to the hospital, the instructors tried to flush her stomach themselves.

Both Baobao and Enshu describe psychological counseling sessions in which very little understanding was shown.

Enshu's sessions were recorded on camera for her parents, who she says paid 65.800 yuan ($9.300) for her six months at the school.

"Be a happy, healthy, positive boy. Okay?" they tell her in the video.

"You're a boy, do what boys do... just be happy."

Baobao says that when she told a counselor she wanted to end her life, the response was: "If you really wanted to die, you wouldn't be sitting here in front of me right now."

"Would a caring person say something like that? What kind of people are they?" she asks.

Both students wondered how their parents could have decided to expose them to such an experience.

Enshu's mother cried as she told the BBC that the family had been "misled" by the school's promises.

"Not only do they scam you out of money, they also tear families apart, causing their relationships to break down."

Societal pressure to have children who are successful in school plays a big role in parents' decisions - especially among urban middle-class families - to send their children to schools for discipline, says Dr. Yichen Rao, an anthropologist at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

He has studied internet addiction treatment centers in China and says a mix of lack of support in the school system, anxiety and conflict within the family can lead parents to "believe they have no other choice."

Baobao's mother declined to comment.

Her daughter says she can now "understand both sides."

"I think she was brainwashed by the slogans that advertise the school. She desperately wanted me to become more obedient... to be the daughter she always wanted."

Baobao managed to leave after pretending to have a health problem with her eye.

Her mother simply said, "Let's turn over a new leaf," leaving her angry and confused, she recalls.

Viral letters

Enshu's suffering was over after a month.

Her friends realized she was missing and contacted the police, who then located her and shared her video from school.

Her friend Wan Juhang recognized the school after asking around in online groups about the green uniform she was wearing.

Enshu discreetly documented her own experience in letters that were smuggled into the outside world and published online.

They went viral and after public pressure grew, the police intervened and she was allowed to leave.

Twelve days later, authorities announced that the Shengbo School was being closed, but made no mention of the abuses that Enshu had accused her of, saying, however, that the school had violated some administrative regulations.

She says the police later told her that Li Zheng had been arrested, accused of participating in organized crime.

Police did not respond to BBC requests for information about Enshu's case and Li.

The local Ministry of Education also did not respond.

Li generally avoids public appearances.

The BBC analysed his network and found that he ran discipline schools in four provinces through a complex set of companies registered to him or his close associates.

He founded his first center in 2006 and at different times was the owner of four different educational companies.

The website of one of his organizations says he is a graduate of the Chinese Air Force Academy in southern China and has worked as a “training director” and “senior psychological counselor” at several schools since 2007.

On local television in Hunan province, he once spoke about raising young people "with love and patience."

Chinese authorities have intervened before, following accusations against schools in the network.

An instructor at another of Li Zheng's schools was taken into police custody in 2019 after allegations that he beat a student with a water pipe.

Also, according to Chinese media reports, the school Baobao attended was ordered to stop accepting new students after the suicide of a student in 2020.

She was present at the time and says that the school continued to operate during that period.

Soon after that, she changed her name.

Mu Zhou, a volunteer from Australia who helped document the abuse allegations, says that “whenever there is any public discontent, Li Zheng just changes the name of the school or the legal representative.”

He also says that students are being moved from location to location to avoid inspections.

"Huge profits"

Two undercover researchers recently visited what could be the latest addition to Li Zheng's network.

Posing as investors interested in the education sector in Hong Kong, the researchers arranged a meeting with three former employees of Li Zheng's schools at a new school they had opened in Fujian.

“The earnings in this field are huge,” Li Junfeng, director of the psychological counseling center at the new school, told them.

He outlined how this business model could work in Hong Kong, proposing tuition fees of at least $25.000 per student per year.

He refused to name their boss, but said he was a "veteran."

He seemed, however, to distance himself from the network itself, telling researchers:

"There were some incidents. Parents filed a complaint. The group, although not yet formally disbanded, is on the verge of collapse. That's why I left."

The BBC was unable to contact Li Zheng, Li Junfeng or other schools and companies associated with Li Zheng and his associates for comment, even after multiple attempts.

A staff member who took guests on a tour of the Quality Education for Teenagers school declined to comment.

The Ministry of Education responsible for the school could not be contacted, even after multiple attempts.

It seems difficult to regulate these disciplinary centers.

Some are not registered as schools at all.

Responsibility is divided between local education, civil services and the market regulation administration, a Chinese lawyer familiar with lawsuits against such institutions, who asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC.

Dr. Rao says that without centralized regulation over schools for discipline, responsibility usually falls to local government.

He describes it as “a secretive area that the state simply tolerates,” adding that the state may not want to legitimize it by providing proper regulation or guidance.

But, he adds, there is a wide "range" of schools, with some including psychotherapy for students and training for parents, or discipline staff administering corporal punishment.

The Chinese embassy in London said the government "attaches great importance to the legal operation of educational institutions and the protection of minors."

She says that all educational institutions are "required to comply with all applicable laws and regulations."

"Terribly sad"