Chinese citizen journalist accused of “manipulating information” about Wuhan’s coronavirus outbreak

Weiquanwang, a website that focuses on reporting about human rights cases in China, shared the official indictment for Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan on November 13. The prosecutor suggested that Zhang should be sentenced to four to five years in prison. Human rights organizations hope the international community can keep putting pressure on the Chinese government by focusing on the case.

Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan has been detained by police in Shanghai since May, after she spent more than three months reporting from Wuhan City during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. On November 13, a copy of her official indictment showed that the People’s Procuratorate of Pudong New District in Shanghai City had recommended that Zhang should be sentenced to four to five years in prison.

The official indictment wrote that since Zhang arrived at Wuhan in February, she began to “spread large amount of fake information in the forms of text and videos” through WeChat, Twitter and Youtube. Additionally, she was also interviewed by several foreign media outlets. The Procuratorate accused Zhang of “viciously manipulating information about the COVID19 outbreak in Wuhan,” and since she had a lot of followers, she was trying to “spread negative influence.”

The indictment also accused Zhang of making up and spreading fake information that seriously disturbed public order in Wuhan City during the lockdown. The Procuratorate thinks there are clear evidence to prove that Zhang has committed crimes and she should be sentenced to four to five years in prison based on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”

Even though the date on the official indictment was September 15, the copy of the indictment was only made public on November 13 by Weiquanwang. In fact, Zhang has been brought back to Shanghai from Wuhan in May and she has put up hunger strikes since she was detained. She has also not pleaded guilty or agreed to be investigated.

International attention on Zhang Zhan’s case

The Chinese Human Rights Defender (CHRD) submitted a communique detailing the detention of Zhang Zhan and two other Chinese activists to the United Nations’ Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on November 17. Leo Lan, the Research and Advocacy Consultant for CHRD said the Chinese government is trying to use Zhang’s case to scare off other activists and Chinese citizens who have reported the truth about the pandemic in China.

“Since the pandemic has been spread to other countries and resulted in huge number of cases, Beijing simply doesn’t want people to dig into the origin of the pandemic and the situation on the ground,” Lan said.

Lan thinks that even though the Procuratorate has suggested that Zhang should be sentenced to four to five years in prison, the international community should still put pressure on the Chinese government by focusing on the case.

“Sustained international pressure will still help,” Lan said. “The government is testing the public’s reaction to Zhang’s case, so the international community needs to keep raising attention on the procedural flaws and draconian criminal justice practices in her case.”

Zhang isn’t the only citizen journalist that has been arrested and detained by the Chinese government for reporting from Wuhan during the city’s lockdown. Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zhehua have all been arrested and forced into disappearance after sharing situation in Wuhan through social media.

So far, the conditions of Fang and Chen remain unclear while Li uploaded a video to his Youtube channel two months after his initial disappearance, trying to explain what happened to him.

Zhang still refuses to plead guilty

Sources said that Zhang met her lawyer for the first time at the end of September, and at the time, she had been putting on hunger strike for a few months. The detention center had arranged two to three people to force-feed Zhang. One of her original lawyer, Wen Yu, decided to quit her case at the end of October after the government put pressure on him following the interviews he did with foreign media outlets.

Sources said Zhang didn’t lose more weight after the detention center appointed people in her same cell to feed her. People in her cell would reportedly ask her not to go on hunger strike but she also wouldn’t try to eat on her own. “She wouldn’t use money to buy extra meals or snacks,” said a source who prefers to remain anonymous out of fear of persecution. “Her mental state remains normal but she still hasn’t pleaded guilty yet.”

Previously, Zhang had told her lawyer that as a sign of protest, she wanted to remain silent when she appeared in court. However, her lawyers didn’t think that was the best strategy, so they have been reportedly trying to convince Zhang to explain to the judge why she thinks she is innocent.

After Wen quit Zhang’s case, the only lawyer that is still on Zhang’s case is Dai Pei-ching. However, activists who have been following Zhang’s case worry that Dai hasn’t been willing to share the latest updates about Zhang’s case with her family. They think this might indicate that Beijing wants to control who gets to handle Zhang’s case.

Jane Wang, an activist who has been following Zhang’s case closely, said there have been fewer and fewer information about Zhang’s mental and physical conditions since the end of September. “All international organizations need accurate information about Zhang’s status in order to advocate for her,” Wang said. “However, these information has been kept away from the public so far.”

This article was first published in Mandarin on DW’s Chinese website.