- Zhang Zhan was jailed for filming the Covid-19 lockdown in Wuhan
- She was due to be released on May 13 after serving four years in prison
- She has not been seen or heard from, raising concerns among officials
US officials have raised alarm over the disappearance of a Chinese whistleblower journalist who should have been released from prison.
Zhang Zhan was sentenced to four years in prison for live streaming the early days of the Covid-19 lockdown in Wuhan.
She recently served a four-year sentence in the Shanghai Women’s Prison on charges of “provoking quarrels and provoking trouble.”
But the 40-year-old has yet to be seen beyond her expected May 13 release date.
“The United States is deeply concerned by reports that Chinese citizen journalist Ms. Zhang Zhan has disappeared following her expected release,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
US officials have raised alarm over the disappearance of Chinese whistleblowing journalist Zhang Zhan, who was recently released from prison
“The United States has repeatedly expressed our grave concerns about the arbitrary nature of her detention and the authorities’ mistreatment of her.
“We reiterate our call on the People’s Republic of China to respect Ms. Zhang’s human rights, including by immediately ending the restrictive measures she and all journalists in the People’s Republic of China face, including surveillance, censorship, harassment and intimidation .’
Ren Quanniu, a former lawyer who previously represented Zhang, said he could not reach her father and expressed concern that Zhang would be released only to be placed under another form of control by police.
During her time in prison, Zhang went on a hunger strike and was hospitalized at one point in 2021.
Zhang’s family has faced pressure from police during her time in prison, and her parents have declined interview requests from the media. Her family was sometimes only able to speak to their daughter by telephone in prison.
Zhang Zhan was sentenced to four years in prison for filming the early days of the Covid-19 lockdown in Wuhan
US officials said they are “deeply concerned” about her whereabouts as she has not been contactable since her release
Shen Yanqiu, who planned to go with Zhang’s family to host her in prison, declined to speak to The Associated Press, saying she had been “invited to drink tea,” a euphemism for a police interrogation .
Calls from the Associated Press to Zhang’s brother went unanswered. Calls to the prison administration office in Shanghai also went unanswered.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin declined to comment on the matter when asked on Monday, saying: “I am not aware of the situation.”
Zang’s arrest was the subject of protests with activists demanding her release.
However, she was one of many citizen journalists who ended up in jail for reporting on the pandemic in China.
Among them Fang Bin, who published videos of overcrowded hospitals and bodies during the outbreak.
Fang was sentenced to three years in prison and released last April.
Chen Qiushi, another citizen journalist, disappeared in February 2020 while filming in Wuhan.
Chen resurfaced on a friend’s live video feed on YouTube in September 2021, saying he was suffering from depression but did not provide details about his disappearance.
The coronavirus remains a sensitive topic in China. In the first week of May, a Chinese scientist who was the first to publish a series on the COVID-19 virus staged a protest after authorities denied him access to his laboratory after years of demotions and setbacks.