Recognized globally for documenting the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, a Chinese Christian woman has been sentenced to four more years in prison for the same offense for which she previously served a four-year term.
Zhang Zhan received her latest sentence last Friday from the Pudong New Area People’s Court in Shanghai on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” the U.K.-based group Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported.
The 42-year-old Christian and former lawyer had been detained the previous month in Shaanxi Province, where she was reportedly helping a young pro-democracy activist secure legal assistance. She was later transferred to a detention center in Shanghai.
Zhang had been released on May 13 after serving her first four-year prison term, which began in 2020 following her arrest for reporting from Wuhan during the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Amnesty International previously said she had been repeatedly summoned by police in the months before her re-arrest in August 2024. She was taken into custody on Aug. 28 and formally arrested in November on the same charge, according to The Guardian.
Her indictment cited social media posts that prosecutors claimed “seriously damaged the country’s image,” and they recommended a sentence of four to five years.
Zhang’s communications with supporters were limited following her release. Human rights groups said she had been under close surveillance, a common practice in China for individuals who had previously criticized the government.
Prosecutors reportedly based the new charges on content Zhang posted to YouTube and X, including commentary on human rights violations.
Her initial arrest in May 2020 followed her travel to Wuhan in February that year, where she filmed hospitals, lockdown conditions, and government restrictions. She shared 122 videos across several platforms, including X, YouTube, and WeChat, documenting the excessive curtailment of people’s freedoms during lockdown.
Chinese Human Rights Defenders stated that her reporting in the early days of the pandemic could have helped avert global harm.
The U.N. Human Rights Office said her trial was “deeply disturbing” and raised concerns about the lack of transparency. It noted that independent observers were prevented from attending her trial.
CSW President Mervyn Thomas called the charges “completely unfounded” and demanded Zhang’s release. Reporters Without Borders also labelled the case as persecution rather than a prosecution.
Zhang, a native of Shaanxi Province, converted to Christianity in 2015 and began speaking publicly about human rights soon after. In 2019, she was arrested in Shanghai for staging an anti-government protest.
China’s Foreign Ministry responded to international criticism by arguing that the case pertains to China’s judicial sovereignty and that “no external forces have the right to interfere.”
China holds 124 media workers in prison and ranks 178th out of 180 countries on Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index.
