Shanghai (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A little more than a month after she served a four-year sentence for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, i.e. reporting about the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, blogger Zhang Zhan is still being closely monitored.
The Xuanqiao police station of Shanghai Public Security Bureau warned her not to cross the “red line” again. “Whose red line are you all protecting? Is the life of the people the red line? Or is it “the opinion of superiors”? I don’t want to go in (to jail), and I’m not the one who should go in,” she was quoted as saying by Wang Jianhong, a British activist and founder of the Zhang Zhan Concern Group, quoting a message from the citizen journalist posted on WeChat on 9 June.
For ChinaAid, a US-based group that monitors the persecution of Chinese Protestant communities, the "red line" is directly related to religious freedom. Zhang Zhan is in fact an evangelical Christian.
On 29 May, a few days after her release, she spoke during a Zoom meeting held by @5pminChina, a YouTube channel linked to some house churches, the Protestant communities oppressed in China because they have refused to join the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the official government supervisory organ for Chinese Protestantism.
Established in September 2022, 5pminChina is an alliance among groups that ask their members and their families to meet at that time of the day to pray for Christians detained by Chinese police.
In the video posted on YouTube from abroad, Zhang Zhan appears emotionally exhausted by her ordeal in prison, bursting into tears several times, saying that she is not strong. Speaking only about her faith, she says that she prayed for the recovery of her ill cellmate and her joy in seeing that God heard and answered her prayer.
While still under surveillance after her release, she expresses the desire to take part in Sunday worship and meet her brothers and sisters in faith. She also says that in prison she felt God's closeness and experienced joy from it.
“This experience showed her that the Kingdom of Heaven exists and that the suffering in the world is temporary,” ChinaAid writes.
After her release, friends at home and abroad were very worried about her health. Shanghai lawyer Peng Yonghe was able to visit her; however, on 31 May, he was summoned to the Xuanqiao police station and had several electronic devices seized, without any warrant.
“The People’s Republic of China must unconditionally respect the fundamental human rights of its own great citizen, Ms. Zhang Zhan,” writes ChinaAid, which calls on the “the government of China to immediately cease its restrictive measures against her, including surveillance, censorship, harassment and intimidation.”
“We remain very worried for Zhang Zhan as she faces a new wave of pressure following her release from prison,” says Rebecca Vincent, Director of Campaigns for Reporters without Borders (RSF). “We repeat: partial freedom is not freedom at all, and the Chinese authorities are fooling no one in subjecting Zhang Zhan to extreme surveillance and threats of rearrest,” she adds.
“This courageous journalist needs international support now more than ever, after risking so much to report on a public health issue impacting us all,” Vincent explains. “We urge the diplomatic community to remain vigilant in monitoring Zhang Zhan’s situation, and to keep her safety and freedom high on the agenda in their relations with Beijing.”
