China: Journalist Zhang Zhan Soon Facing Trial

CHN 001 / 0325 / OBS 013
Arbitrary detention /
Torture and ill-treatment /
Judicial harassment
China
24 March 2025

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in China.

Description of the situation:

The Observatory has been informed about the imminent trial, ongoing arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of citizen journalist and human rights defender Zhang Zhan. Initially targeted by Chinese authorities for her coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, she is now being further persecuted for supporting a fellow human rights defender. Ms Zhang is a well-known and outspoken journalist on the situation of human rights in China and a former lawyer whose licence was suspended in retaliation for her activism.

At the beginning of March 2025, news emerged that Ms Zhang will soon be tried at the Pudong New Area People’s Court in Shanghai on the charge of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" (Article 293 of China's Criminal Law). The date set for the hearing is still unknown at the time of publication of this Urgent Appeal. The same media reports also indicate that the prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence of four to five years.

The Observatory recalls that on 13 May 2024, Zhang Zhan was released from prison after serving a four-year sentence on the same charge. Following her release, she travelled to Gansu province to help pro-democracy activist Zhang Pancheng secure legal representation. Mr Zhang (who is not related to Zhang Zhan) has been in detention without access to legal representation since July 2024, after issuing a statement denouncing the continued surveillance against him. Following this visit, in late August 2024, Shanghai police officers travelled over 1,400 kilometres to Zhang Zhan’s hometown in Shanxi to take her into custody.

On 18 November 2024, Ms Zhang was formally arrested on the charge of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble". At the time of publication of this Urgent Appeal, she is being held at the Pudong Detention Centre in Shanghai.

According to multiple reports, including one published on 25 January 2025 by Rights Defense Network, Ms Zhang has engaged in intermittent hunger strikes to protest her arbitrary detention. In response, detention centre personnel have reportedly subjected her to force-feeding through a gastric tube – a practice that constitutes ill-treatment and in some cases torture, in violation of the Convention against Torture ratified by China in 1988, and that poses a serious threat to her health.

Ms Zhang's lawyer, based in Shanghai, has been allowed to meet with her but has been under pressure from the authorities not to disclose the case details publicly.

The Observatory further recalls that, on 14 May 2020, Zhang Zhan went missing in Wuhan, Hubei Province, after releasing a video criticising the government's COVID-19 response. After months of incommunicado detention, she was sentenced on 28 December 2020 to four years in prison on the charge of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble", a charge often used by Chinese authorities to suppress dissent and target human rights defenders. Throughout her imprisonment, Ms Zhang carried out multiple hunger strikes to protest her arbitrary detention, leading to frequent hospitalisations due to severe malnutrition and a rapid deterioration of her health, putting her life at risk. She endured severe physical mistreatment, including forced feeding via nasal tubes and prolonged physical restraints. In 2022, Ms Zhang was featured in OMCT’s #FacesOfHope campaign.

The Observatory is deeply concerned about Zhang Zhan’s well-being and strongly condemns her arbitrary detention, which appears to be only aimed at punishing her for her legitimate human rights activities.

The Observatory urges the Chinese authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Zhang Zhan, to ensure that she receives urgent and adequate medical treatment, and to put an end to any act of harassment, including at the judicial level, against her.

Actions requested:

Please write to the Chinese authorities to urge them to:

1. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical integrity and psychological well-being of Zhang Zhan as well as that of all other human rights defenders and journalists in China;
2. Immediately and unconditionally release Zhang Zhan as her detention is arbitrary, since it appears to be solely aimed at punishing her for her legitimate human rights activities and is putting her life at risk;
3. Guarantee Zhang Zhan’s access to adequate medical treatment, as well as the unhindered access to her family members and lawyer;
4. Put an end to all acts of harassment - including at the judicial level - against Zhang Zhan and all other journalists and human rights defenders in the country, along with their family and lawyers so that they are able to carry out their work without hindrance and fear of reprisals.

Addresses:

• Mr Li Qiang, Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China, email: premier@mail.gov.cn
• Mr Wang Xiaohong, Minister of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China, email: gabzfwz@mps.gov.cn
• Mr Chen Xu, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, email: chinamission_gva@mfa.gov.cn
• Mr Fei Shengchao, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Brussels, Belgium, email: chinaemb_be@mfa.gov.cn
• Mr Fu Cong, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations in New York, United States of America, email: chinesemission@yahoo.com
• Mr Cai Run, Ambassador and Head of Mission, Mission of the People's Republic of China to the European Union, email: chinamission_eu@mfa.gov.cn

Please also write to the diplomatic representations of China in your respective countries.

***

Geneva-Paris, 24 March 2025

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997 by the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and FIDH. The objective of this programme is to prevent or remedy situations of repression against human rights defenders. OMCT and FIDH are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented by international civil society.

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