A citizen journalist jailed for her coverage of China’s initial response to Covid in Wuhan is close to death after going on hunger strike, her family said, prompting renewed calls from rights groups for her immediate release.
Zhang Zhan, 38, a former lawyer, travelled to Wuhan in February 2020 to report on the chaos at the pandemic’s epicentre, questioning authorities’ handling of the outbreak in her smartphone videos.
Her brother Zhang Ju wrote last week on a Twitter account verified by people close to the matter , She is now severely underweight and “may not live for much longer”,
She was detained in May 2020 and sentenced in December to four years in jail for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” a charge routinely used to suppress dissent.
Zhang has been on a hunger strike and was force-fed through nasal tubes, her legal team, which did not have information on her current condition, told AFP earlier this year.
“She may not survive the coming cold winter,” Zhang Ju wrote, adding that he had urged his sister in letters to “take care of herself”.”In her heart, it seems there is only God and her beliefs, with no care for anything else.”
Zhang Ju’s posts sparked fresh calls for his sister’s release, with Amnesty International urging the Chinese government Thursday to “release her immediately so that she can end her hunger strike and receive the appropriate medical treatment she desperately needs”.
The Shanghai prison also offered no response when approached by AFP. Zhang now cannot walk or even raise her head without help, according to Reporters without Borders .
RSF East Asia Bureau head, Cedric Alviani, said the “international community apply pressure to the Chinese regime and secure Zhang Zhan’s immediate release before it is too late.”
The government has put forward a narrative crediting the Communist Party with returning life almost to normal even as death tolls and infections continue to explode in the rest of the world.
