China sentences COVID whistleblower

The Pudong New Area People’s Court in China’s financial hub of Shanghai on Monday sentenced Zhang Zhan to four years in prison on charges of picking fights and provoking trouble. Authorities arrested the former lawyer in May, saying she spread false information, granted interviews to foreign media, and “maliciously manipulated” the outbreak.

What did she do? Zhang traveled to Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, in February and chronicled her findings on several social media platforms. The 37-year-old staged a hunger strike during her detention and is currently in poor health, according to her lawyer. China threatened and detained several doctors who first raised concerns about the pandemic on social media for “rumor-mongering.”

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read June Cheng’s report on how Chinese citizens handled the government’s initial response to the pandemic.