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 group well being middle, noting {that a} man stated he was charged for a coronavirus check, although residents believed the exams could be free.

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

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’s 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 accordance with her legal professionals. She has grow to be gaunt and drained however has refused to eat, the legal professionals stated, sustaining that her strike is her type of protest in opposition to her unjust detention.

“She stated she refuses to take part within the trial. She says it’s an insult,” Ren Quanniu, one of many legal professionals, 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 “choosing quarrels and frightening bother” — a frequent cost for presidency critics — and advisable between 4 and 5 years in jail.

“She was shocked,” Mr. Ren stated. “She didn’t assume it might 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 had been preoccupied with attempting to handle the chaos of the outbreak, and for a quick 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 town’s abandoned prepare station. On March 7, when Wuhan’s high Communist Get together official stated residents ought to endure “gratitude training” to thank the federal government for its anti-epidemic efforts, Ms. Zhang walked via the streets, asking passers-by in the event that they felt grateful.

“Is gratitude one thing you’ll be able to educate? When you can, it should be a pretend gratitude,” she stated into the digicam afterward. “We’re adults. We don’t have to be taught.”

Ms. Zhang’s movies had been usually shaky and unedited, typically lasting just some seconds. They steadily confirmed the challenges of unbiased reporting in China below the Get together’s tightening grip. Many residents ignored Ms. Zhang or advised her to depart. In the event that they did speak, they requested her to level the digicam at their toes.

Whereas she posted some movies and essays to WeChat, a preferred messaging service in China, she stated she usually encountered censorship on the platform. She largely relied on YouTube and Twitter, that are blocked in China however will be accessed via digital personal 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 buddy who exchanged messages together with her usually whereas she was reporting. However she was cussed and idealistic, he stated, to a degree that was typically obscure.

Ms. Zhang appeared to know the dangers of her actions. In one in every of 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 below surveillance. Whistleblower docs 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 unhappiness 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 steering of public opinion,” and a whole lot of journalists from state media had been deployed to 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 had been later charged with choosing quarrels and frightening bother, although their trials haven’t begun, in accordance with members of the family.

Regardless of the scrutiny, Ms. Zhang continued shifting 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 had been seen just a few hundred occasions on YouTube.

Her buddy, Mr. Li, warned that the authorities would lose endurance finally, 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 instantly stopped responding, Mr. Li stated. He later discovered 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 info.” It additionally famous that she had given interviews to “international media” comparable to Radio Free Asia and the Epoch Occasions.

Ms. Zhang started refusing meals not lengthy after her arrest, in accordance with her legal professionals. When one in every of them, Zhang Ke Ke, visited her in jail earlier this month, he noticed that her arms had been tied with restraints, in accordance with a submit on his WeChat account. Ms. Zhang defined that the guards periodically inserted a feeding tube and had certain 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 undergo 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 images — 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 particular person as you noticed on-line.”

China’s courtroom system is notoriously opaque, with delicate instances usually heard behind closed doorways. In 2019, the conviction fee for Chinese language courts was 99.9 %, in accordance with authorities statistics. Ms. Zhang’s legal professionals 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; mates say he’s below 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 retailers, 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, “When you submit this on-line, you’ll need to take accountability.”

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