Free Zhang Zhan

Source: China Unofficial Archives (8/28/25)
Free Zhang Zhan: Constructing Public Space for Memory
By Zhu Zhu

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Exactly one year ago today, on August 28, 2024, Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan was arrested by Shanghai police at her home in Xianyang, Shaanxi province, on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” She is currently being detained, and her case has not yet gone to trial.

Zhang, now 42, was born in Xianyang, Shaanxi Province. She holds a master’s degree in finance and moved to Shanghai in 2010 as a financial professional, later working as a lawyer. Zhang could have led a comfortable life as a white-collar professional in Shanghai, but her concern for social issues led her to become an active voice on online platforms and to participate in civil rights defense, which resulted in the revocation of her lawyer’s license by the Chinese authorities.

After the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in 2020, she went to the locked-down city of Wuhan alone to conduct independent reporting. She became one of the most prominent Chinese citizen journalists to emerge during the pandemic and immediately faced a series of suppressive actions from the Chinese government.

On February 1, 2020, Zhang Zhan arrived in Wuhan by train. Like other citizen journalists of that time—including Fang Bin, Li Zehua, and Chen Qiushi—she began documenting the reality of Wuhan under the pandemic lockdown. She recorded everything from deserted streets to heavily guarded residential communities, from overcrowded hospitals to crematories operating day and night, from train stations where homeless migrant workers gathered to cemeteries where the first victims of the COVID-19 pandemic were buried. She even filmed the construction of makeshift hospitals and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Risking both the virus and arrest, Zhang documented precious details of this painful historical period for the Chinese people, posting videos and commentary on social media (Twitter and YouTube) to call for change. (Her more than 100 videos from before and after the Wuhan lockdown can still be viewed on her YouTube channel, and the China Unofficial Archives has backed up those videos on the Internet Archive.)

On May 14, 2020, Zhang was arrested by Shanghai police in Wuhan on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” which is an infamous pocket crime in Chinese criminal law that has been used to prosecute many human rights defenders. However, based on the facts, Zhang’s filming and her symbolic protests in Wuhan did not constitute a crime within the plain meaning of China’s criminal law.

According to the Chinese authorities, Zhang’s evidence of crime was the text and videos she posted on foreign social media platforms, which they labeled as “rumors.” This shows that Zhang was, in fact, being punished for her speech—and her crime was nothing more than documenting the truth of the Wuhan pandemic and spreading that truth to the world.

According to her defense lawyer’s account, during her court hearing on December 28, 2020, Zhang Zhan defended herself by asking, “The government’s accusation against people’s speech is itself wrong. It means every word of mine must be censored. Does the state have the power to censor its citizens’ speech?”

In court, Zhang questioned the presiding judge: “Don’t you feel, as you put me in the defendant’s seat, that your conscience tells you this is wrong?” This shows that she was clearly aware of her actions and stood firm in her values, expressing her thoughts even while facing the threat of a heavy sentence.

Because she refused to plead guilty and went on a hunger strike while in detention, Zhang was ultimately handed a sentence of four years. She was released in May 2024 after serving her full term, but three months later, she was arrested again on the same charge.

Details of Zhang’s struggles and many of her stories can be found in the book Free Zhang Zhan. Edited by Wang Jianhong, a U.K.-based activist with Humanitarian China, the book was compiled and published in May 2024, shortly before Zhang’s release. The nearly 600-page e-book, available for free online, includes Zhang’s own accounts, articles, letters, and court statements, as well as a large collection of supportive messages posted by her supporters on social media.

This comprehensive collection allows people to understand Zhang’s public value as an activist from multiple perspectives. Although she has lost her freedom, through the book Free Zhang Zhan, her ideals and actions can be shared with the public at large.

The book’s documentation of Zhang’s words, deeds, and the response from society provides a valuable framework for other prisoners of conscience in China. Through collecting Zhang Zhan’s writings and those of her supporters and disseminating information and providing updates about Zhang Zhan online (via https://freezhangzhan.org/), Free Zhang Zhan has systematically constructed an unofficial space for honoring and advocating for Zhang Zhan.

From the book, people can see the important role that her Christian faith played in Zhang’s activism and in her life. As a Christian, Zhang often quoted the Bible in her statements and correspondence and preached to residents during the Wuhan lockdown. Her commitment to justice was also deeply inspired by Christian teachings. She once said, “Of course, one should seek the truth, and seek it regardless of the cost. Truth has always been the most valuable thing in this world; it is our very life.”

The book shows that Zhang has a wide range of supporters. Her practice of documenting the truth, questioning authority, and maintaining dignity and self-respect can be understood by the world beyond the framework of Christianity and within the universal framework of the rule of law and human rights. Her courage can also move those who live under an autocratic regime and are constantly filled with fear.

Speaking of fear, people hearing about Zhang’s actions for the first time might think that she must have overcome fear to muster the courage for a struggle that most people would not even dare to imagine. However, after watching Zhang’s videos and reading Free Zhang Zhan, one can see that Zhang was, in fact, well aware of the likely outcome of imprisonment and was therefore fearful. Her actions were not born of naivety or recklessness but of a sense of justice that compelled her to summon her courage and challenge her fear.

Zhang’s insistence on justice and truth doesn’t mean she is flawless. Her brother, Zhang Ju, once said that while Zhang Zhan loves all people, her actions have increased the mental burden on her parents and other family members. Furthermore, Zhang’s prolonged hunger strike in prison left her on the brink of death, causing great concern among many of her supporters.

In contrast to this concern, the comments section of her YouTube videos—and other online spaces—is filled with a large amount of abuse and insults directed at Zhang. Many commenters call her mentally ill, while some believe she has damaged China’s image regarding its response to the pandemic.

This reaction is in lockstep with the Chinese authorities’ logic. When Zhang held up banners in Shanghai in 2019 that read “End Socialism, Communist Party Step Down,” one of the first measures taken by the Shanghai police was to subject her to a mandatory psychiatric examination. In fact, pathologizing political dissent is a typical tactic used by many authoritarian regimes worldwide—transforming criticism and protest against the government into a personal attack on the protester.

Excluding comments from trolls, the voices in Zhang’s video comments section also include so-called pragmatists. When the pandemic in China was under control in 2020, and the number of infections and deaths in many other countries was soaring, a certain narrative began to prevail in the comments: China’s lockdown policy was correct.

However, critics like Zhang were not primarily concerned with the specific correctness of the pandemic measures but rather with advocating for freedom of speech and civil rights. It was precisely the lack of these freedoms and rights that led to the numerous absurdities and tragedies that occurred during China’s lockdowns and the “zero-COVID” policy, causing many people to lose their dignity in addition to facing the threat of the virus.

Those comments that were self-satisfied with China’s pandemic measures were soon confronted by the reality of the failure of the “zero-COVID” policy and the subsequent large-scale infections and millions of deaths in China. Zhang Zhan’s calls for freedom and rights during the Wuhan lockdown, however, have stood the test of time.

In May 2024, after her release, Zhang created a new YouTube channel. The comment section of her videos was overwhelmingly filled with messages of support. Many called her a hero, and some commenters who identified themselves as Wuhan residents expressed their gratitude for her documentation of history and truth.

On August 28, 2024, Zhang Zhan was re-arrested for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” after she continued to speak out on social media and publicly supported Zhang Pancheng, a Chinese citizen who was detained for advocating for democracy.

Now, facing an upcoming second trial, Zhang is likely to be imprisoned for many more years. But her supporters firmly believe that justice is on her side. As Zhang told the judge during her 2020 court hearing: “This is the court that is judging you, not me.”

Recommended archives:

Free Zhang Zhan

Zhang Zhan’s 2020 YouTube videos (introduction)

Zhang Zhan’s 2020 YouTube videos (backup by China Unofficial Archives)