Zhang Zhan (; born 2 September 1983) is a Chinese citizen journalist and former lawyer who travelled to Wuhan in February 2020, from where she reported on the impact of the lockdown measures imposed in the city in response to the COVID-19 outbreak there, and questioned the handling of the crisis by authorities. She was detained in May 2020, and was later tortured and sentenced in December 2020 to four years imprisonment on the charges of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" (寻衅滋事). She is the first citizen journalist to be sentenced for reporting on the pandemic in China, although at least ten journalists and commentators were known to have been arrested for their coronavirus reporting as of February 2021, with seven remaining missing or detained as of that date. Chen Qiushi reappeared in September 2021.
Zhang was hospitalized from 31 July until 11 August 2021, due to malnutrition after an extended intermittent hunger strike. In late October, her mother and brother considered Zhang to be close to death as she continued her hunger strike, leading to calls by the United States government, Reporters without Borders, and the United Nations human rights office for her immediate unconditional release.
Early life and education
Zhang was born in Xianyang, Shaanxi, and graduated in finance at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics.
Career
She moved to Shanghai in 2010, and formerly worked as a lawyer, but had her license revoked for participation in the Weiquan movement.
In August 2018, Zhang was warned by police for "incitement of state power". In April 2019, she was detained by authorities on suspicion of "disturbing the public order".
In September 2019, during the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, Zhang held up an umbrella on Nanjing Road and People's Square in Shanghai in support of the protesters, inscribed with the slogan, "End socialism, Communist Party down." On 9 September, she was detained on suspicion of disturbing the public order until 13 November 2019, during which time she went on hunger strike twice.
Journalism, February to May 2020
On 1 February 2020, Zhang travelled from Shanghai, her place of residence, to Wuhan to cover the COVID-19 pandemic there as a citizen journalist. In a video published by the portal China Change, Zhang stated that prior to her travel to Wuhan, she had been deeply moved by an online post by a Wuhan resident who expressed feeling abandoned by authorities. In dozens of short, shaky videos which she live-streamed and uploaded on Twitter, YouTube, and other social media, she documented overflowing hospitals, empty shops, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (multiple times), crematoria, the detention of independent journalists, and harassment of families of victims of the pandemic seeking accountability. She also posted essays.
One story on 16 February 2020 accused the government of covering up the true numbers of infections and deaths "in the name of maintaining stability", of keeping the media under control, and accused the authorities of "coercively and violently ordering and depriving people of their basic human and property rights" through the imposed strict lockdown. According to Zhang, crematoria in Wuhan were running day and night, during a time when state media claimed that the pandemic was under control. Another video showed her visiting the police station where Li Wenliang had been reprimanded for spreading word about the outbreak, trying to obtain information about his case. In an essay posted in late April, she criticized that those who had lost loved ones due to the pandemic were being "oppressed" by authorities, through not being allowed to mourn. In her last video before her arrest, she criticised the lockdown on Wuhan for being unduly harsh, saying that the government had managed the city with "intimidation and threats", and that this was "truly the tragedy of this country."
Citizen journalists have been a source of unfiltered information about the pandemic in China. However, there are very few due to lack of accreditation for them.