She Chronicled China’s Disaster. Now She Is Accused of Spreading Lies

In a single video, throughout the lockdown in Wuhan, she filmed a hospital hallway lined with rolling beds, the sufferers hooked as much as blue oxygen tanks. In one other, she panned over a neighborhood well being middle, noting {that a} man stated he was charged for a coronavirus check, regardless that residents believed the assessments could be free.

On the time, Zhang Zhan, a 37-year-old former lawyer turned citizen journalist, embodied the Chinese language individuals’s starvation for unfiltered details about the epidemic. Now, she has develop into an emblem of the federal government’s efforts to disclaim its early failings within the disaster and promote a victorious narrative as an alternative.

Ms. Zhang abruptly stopped posting in Might, after a number of months of dispatches. The police later revealed that she had been arrested, accused of spreading lies. On Monday, she is going to go to courtroom, within the first identified trial of a chronicler of China’s coronavirus disaster.

Ms. Zhang has continued to problem the authorities from jail. Quickly after her arrest, Ms. Zhang started a starvation strike, in keeping with her attorneys. She has develop into gaunt and drained however has refused to eat, the attorneys stated, sustaining that her strike is her type of protest towards her unjust detention.

“She stated she refuses to take part within the trial. She says it’s an insult,” Ren Quanniu, one of many attorneys, stated after visiting Ms. Zhang in mid-December in Shanghai, the place she is being held.

Ms. Zhang’s prosecution is a part of the Chinese language Communist Get together’s persevering with marketing campaign to recast China’s dealing with of the outbreak as a succession of smart, triumphant strikes by the federal government. Critics who’ve pointed to officers’ early missteps have been arrested, censored or threatened by police; three different citizen journalists disappeared from Wuhan earlier than Ms. Zhang did, although not one of the relaxation has been publicly charged.

Prosecutors accused Ms. Zhang of “selecting quarrels and frightening hassle” — a frequent cost for presidency critics — and beneficial between 4 and 5 years in jail.

“She was shocked,” Mr. Ren stated. “She didn’t suppose it will be that heavy.”

Ms. Zhang was amongst of a wave of journalists, professionals and amateurs, who flocked to Wuhan after the lockdown was imposed in late January. The authorities have been preoccupied with attempting to handle the chaos of the outbreak, and for a short interval, China’s strict censorship regime loosened. Reporters seized that window to share residents’ uncooked accounts of terror and fury.

In her first weeks, Ms. Zhang visited a crematory, a crowded hospital hallway and the town’s abandoned prepare station. On March 7, when Wuhan’s prime Communist Get together official stated residents ought to endure “gratitude schooling” to thank the federal government for its anti-epidemic efforts, Ms. Zhang walked by means of the streets, asking passers-by in the event that they felt grateful.

“Is gratitude one thing you possibly can train? For those who can, it have to be a faux gratitude,” she stated into the digicam afterward. “We’re adults. We don’t have to be taught.”

Ms. Zhang’s movies have been typically shaky and unedited, typically lasting just some seconds. They incessantly confirmed the challenges of unbiased reporting in China underneath the Get together’s tightening grip. Many residents ignored Ms. Zhang or advised her to go away. In the event that they did speak, they requested her to level the digicam at their ft.

Whereas she posted some movies and essays to WeChat, a preferred messaging service in China, she stated she typically encountered censorship on the platform. She largely relied on YouTube and Twitter, that are blocked in China however will be accessed by means of digital non-public networks.

Ms. Zhang had by no means been a citizen journalist earlier than touring to Wuhan from Shanghai, the place she lived, stated Li Dawei, a good friend who exchanged messages along with her typically whereas she was reporting. However she was cussed and idealistic, he stated, to some extent that was typically obscure.

Ms. Zhang appeared to know the dangers of her actions. In one among her first movies, on Feb. 7, she talked about that one other citizen journalist, Chen Qiushi, had simply disappeared, and one other, Fang Bin, was underneath surveillance. Whistleblower medical doctors had been silenced, she added.

“However as somebody who cares concerning the reality on this nation, we’ve got to say that if we simply wallow in our disappointment and don’t do one thing to vary this actuality, then our feelings are low cost,” Ms. Zhang stated.

Not lengthy afterward, Mr. Fang disappeared. So did Li Zehua, one other citizen journalist who had traveled to Wuhan. China’s chief, Xi Jinping, had just lately ordered officers to “strengthen the steerage of public opinion,” and lots of of journalists from state media have been deployed to the town.

The crackdown additionally prolonged to individuals who had tried to doc the disaster in much less direct methods. In April, three volunteers who had created a web-based archive of censored information articles concerning the epidemic went lacking; two have been later charged with selecting quarrels and frightening hassle, although their trials haven’t begun, in keeping with relations.

Regardless of the scrutiny, Ms. Zhang continued transferring round Wuhan for a number of weeks, doubtlessly partially as a result of she had not attracted a big following. A few of her movies have been considered just a few hundred instances on YouTube.

Her good friend, Mr. Li, warned that the authorities would lose persistence ultimately, particularly as Ms. Zhang grew more and more daring. At one level, she went to police stations to inquire after the lacking citizen journalists.

“She believed me, however she nonetheless simply wouldn’t cease,” Mr. Li recalled. “She stated, ‘I haven’t completed my work in Wuhan.’”

In mid-Might, Ms. Zhang immediately stopped responding, Mr. Li stated. He later realized that she had been arrested and dropped at Shanghai. The indictment, reviewed by The New York Occasions, accused Ms. Zhang of “making up lies and spreading false data.” It additionally famous that she had given interviews to “international media” similar to Radio Free Asia and the Epoch Occasions.

Ms. Zhang started refusing meals not lengthy after her arrest, in keeping with her attorneys. When one among them, Zhang Ke Ke, visited her in jail earlier this month, he noticed that her arms had been tied with restraints, in keeping with a submit on his WeChat account. Ms. Zhang defined that the guards periodically inserted a feeding tube and had sure her arms so she couldn’t pull it out, Mr. Zhang wrote. (The 2 Zhangs usually are not associated.)

Ms. Zhang stated she felt dizzy and had stomachaches, Mr. Zhang continued. A Christian, she wished she had a Bible and quoted to him from I Corinthians: “God is trustworthy, who won’t endure you to be tempted above that ye are ready.”

Each Mr. Zhang and Mr. Ren, who visited individually later, pleaded with Ms. Zhang to eat. However she refused, Mr. Ren stated.

“She’s a lot paler than in her movies and pictures — deathly pale,” Mr. Ren stated, including that Ms. Zhang appeared to have aged a number of a long time. “It’s actually onerous to consider that she’s the identical individual as you noticed on-line.”

China’s courtroom system is notoriously opaque, with delicate instances typically heard behind closed doorways. In 2019, the conviction price for Chinese language courts was 99.9 p.c, in keeping with authorities statistics. Ms. Zhang’s attorneys just lately petitioned for Ms. Zhang’s trial to be live-streamed, to make sure transparency, however they haven’t heard again, Mr. Ren stated.

Of the opposite citizen journalists who disappeared, only one, Mr. Li, has publicly emerged. In a YouTube video in April, he stated he had been forcibly quarantined however not charged. One other, Mr. Chen, is reportedly with household however has not spoken publicly; associates say he’s underneath surveillance. There was no information of Mr. Fang.

In her second-to-last video earlier than her personal arrest, Ms. Zhang walked down a road in a neighborhood the place instances had just lately been reported. As she filmed the shuttered outlets, a person in a neon vest emblazoned with the phrases “on obligation” confronted her, asking her the place she lived and whether or not she was a journalist. When Ms. Zhang rebuffed him, he yelled, “For those who submit this on-line, you’ll must take accountability.”

“I take accountability for all my actions,” Ms. Zhang yelled again. “It’s important to take accountability in your actions as regulation enforcement, too.”