The recent execution of a British man in China for drug smuggling triggered heated debate between the British and Chinese authorities.

At the center of the argument was whether the man was or was not suffering from a mental condition – bi-polar disorder – and whether he was aware of his actions and the consequences.

And recently a number of widely publicized attacks on either family members or strangers by mentally ill assailants have resulted in several deaths. All this has led to more attention being paid to an area of health that has long been largely ignored in China.

A recent survey carried out by the People’s Daily found that more than 16 percent of university students frequently experience anxiety, depression and nervousness. And the Mental Health Research Institute at Peking University says that while fifteen out of every thousand people will suffer from depression in China - an incident rate similar to that of the US – the number of medical professionals working with mental illness in China is 43 times fewer than in the United States.

BON researcher Jackie Wen went online to find out what net users in China are saying about mental illness and it’s effects on society.