On the fifth anniversary of the initial arrest of citizen journalist Zhang Zhan in China, sixty international human rights and press freedom groups issued a joint statement (see attached) strongly condemning the Chinese government's continued arbitrary detention of Zhang Zhan and her upcoming retrial, calling for her immediate release and an end to the systematic crackdown on civil society. Sources familiar with the matter said Zhang Zhan's trial has been postponed again.
On May 17, human rights and news organizations from around the world jointly issued a statement urging Chinese authorities to immediately release citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, once again drawing global attention to the human rights and press freedom situation in China. Zhang Zhan gained widespread recognition for her travels to Wuhan in 2020 to report on the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her accounts of crowded hospitals, panic among residents, and government lockdowns became a crucial window into China's epidemic prevention efforts. However, she was arrested in May of the same year and sentenced to four years in prison for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble."
Zhang Zhan's trial postponed to avoid the June 4 anniversary
Last August, Zhang Zhan was arrested again on charges of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." On May 14th of this year, the fifth anniversary of her initial arrest, Zhang Zhan was embroiled in a new round of indictments. Mr. Liu, a Chinese man who declined to be named for personal safety reasons, told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday (the 20th) that the trial, originally scheduled for April, had been postponed again. "Zhang Zhan's case has been delayed again. I don't know why, but it might be because the June 4th anniversary is approaching. Anyway, they (the authorities) are very nervous."
This station has previously reported that Zhang Zhan has been detained in the Shanghai Pudong New Area Detention Center since her re-arrest on August 28, 2024. She was detained again just three months after her release because she went to Shaanxi to support another arrested democracy activist, Zhang Pancheng, and continued to expose the oppression of human rights activists in China through social media.
Wu Shaoping, a Chinese human rights lawyer living in the United States, told this station: "Zhang Zhan was only released from prison on May 13 last year. Not long after, she was arrested on her way to visit Zhang Pancheng, who was also being persecuted by the authorities. She was again persecuted by being detained beyond her legal limit. The long delay in her case is undoubtedly due to the authorities constantly extending the trial period and detaining her in a detention center under harsh conditions for a long time."
Civil society groups urge China to release Zhang Zhan
According to Human Rights Defenders, human rights groups from around the world have stated in a statement that Zhang Zhan's experience is not an isolated case, but rather part of China's systematic crackdown on independent media and dissidents in recent years. According to Reporters Without Borders' 2025 World Press Freedom Index, China ranks 178th out of 180 countries, only above Syria and Eritrea. Human rights organizations show that since 2019, over 100 peaceful human rights activists have been charged with "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." This crime has been repeatedly criticized by the international legal community as a "catch-all crime" that can be arbitrarily applied to any speech or behavior.
Chinese legal scholar Lu Chenyuan said in an interview with this station that the authorities' consistent use of long-term detention for prisoners of conscience is intended to break their will. He said: "From the perspective of human rights protection, it is necessary to ensure that the defendants receive a timely trial, but they (the authorities) delay as much as possible, including in the case of human rights lawyer Xie Yang. This violates relevant international treaties established by the United Nations."
UN raises serious concerns about China's crackdown on human rights defenders
As early as 2021, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared Zhang Zhan's initial detention unlawful and called on China to release her immediately. In November 2024, nine UN Special Rapporteurs jointly sent a letter to China, demanding that the fundamental rights of Zhang Zhan and 17 other human rights defenders be protected and that they be prevented from suffering irreparable harm. However, China's response remained empty words, claiming that their "legitimate rights and interests are protected," without addressing specific concerns.
On March 4th of last year, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, in her latest global human rights report to the UN Human Rights Council, publicly called on China to amend the crime of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" and release all those detained for peaceful expression. Foreign ministries of several countries have also expressed concern about Zhang Zhan's case in bilateral meetings, but the Chinese government has yet to make any concrete concessions.
In this regard, Mr. Zhou, a former Chinese lawyer whose license was revoked, told this station that from a legal perspective, Zhang Zhan has not yet been convicted. "She is innocent, but the authorities often adjust the charges before the trial based on the needs of the political situation and the changing political climate. However, the longer the detention, the higher the chance of conviction. If you are found not guilty, you will request state compensation, and even if you are not guilty, you will be considered 'guilty'. It is expected that Zhang Zhan's sentence this time will definitely be more than four years."
International community condemns arbitrary detention
Against this backdrop, 60 groups from Asia, Europe, and North America, including Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, PEN America, International Service for Human Rights, Taiwan Human Rights Advocate, and Students for a Free Tibet, jointly voiced their support in a rare statement. They emphasized, "Zhang Zhan has not committed any internationally recognized crimes, yet she has been brutally persecuted simply for exercising her right to freedom of expression. Her detention is a blatant affront to China's international human rights obligations."
These organizations also called on UN agencies and governments of various countries to not only continue to name and pressure China in high-level diplomatic occasions, but also to make the release of Zhang Zhan and others a prerequisite when conducting law enforcement and rule of law cooperation with China.
In addition, the statement also urged China to submit its five-year-overdue national report on the Convention against Torture as soon as possible, and to disclose the legislative basis and implementation data on secret detention and the "residential surveillance in a designated location" mechanism.
Some scholars believe that the resurgence of the Zhang Zhan case is not only an oppression of a former lawyer and citizen journalist, but also reflects the increasingly restrictive political environment in China regarding freedom of expression. At a time when social media is heavily censored and domestic media outlets are silencing themselves, Zhang Zhan's persistence in personally embodying the spirit of "documentation is justice" is precisely the spark that the Chinese government is eager to extinguish.
