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63 press freedom and human rights NGOs strongly condemn the Chinese government's ongoing arbitrary detention of journalist, human rights defender and former lawyer Zhang Zhan, on the 5th anniversary of her arrest.
We, the undersigned press freedom and human rights organisations, strongly condemn the Chinese government’s ongoing arbitrary detention of journalist, human rights defender and former lawyer Zhang Zhan, on the 5th anniversary of her arrest.
Zhang is an outspoken journalist, and one of many Chinese citizens who are imprisoned for exercising their right to freedom of the press and expression. Zhang Zhan was first detained on 14 May 2020, after she travelled to the city of Wuhan to courageously report on the early stages of Covid-19 pandemic, documenting overflowing hospitals, empty shops, and families of victims and independent journalists being harassed by the authorities. She is currently persecuted for supporting pro-democracy activist Zhang Pancheng, and reporting on human rights violations in the country.
At the beginning of March 2025, NGOs sources confirmed that Zhang will soon be tried on the charge of ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’, a charge often used by Chinese authorities to suppress journalists, writers and human rights defenders. The date of her trial is still unknown, as she remains detained in the Pudong Detention Center in Shanghai, facing an additional up to 5 years in prison if convicted.
Zhang Zhan was apprehended by the police on 28 August 2024, only three months after completion of an earlier four-year sentence under the same charge, while travelling to her hometown in the Shaanxi province in northwest China. In the weeks leading up to this incident, Zhang kept reporting on the harassment of activists in China on her social media.
Her first detention was deemed arbitrary under international human rights law by the UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in a 2021 opinion. In a November 2024 letter to the Chinese government, nine UN Special Procedures mandates raised lengthy concerns about patterns of repression against Zhang Zhan, alongside 17 other human rights defenders, requesting the government to take measures to prevent any irreparable damage to life and personal integrity, and halt the violations of her human rights. The government’s three-lines response on Zhang Zhan’s status merely asserted that ‘her legitimate rights and interests have been fully protected.’
China remains one of the most repressive countries for freedom of speech and press, and ranks 178th out of 180 in the 2025 Reporters without Borders (RSF)’s World Press Freedom Index, and is the world’s leading jailer of journalists and writers, according to data from Committee to Protect Journalists, RSF, and PEN America.
The charge ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’ was used against over 100 individuals for peacefully exercising or defending human rights between 2019 and 2024. Chinese authorities often used this crime to justify political persecution of human rights defenders, including journalists. In March 2024, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, also called on the Chinese government to revise the ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’ provision and release all human rights defenders, lawyers, and others detained under that charge.
In detention, Zhang Zhan has engaged in intermittent hunger strikes to protest her arbitrary detention. In 2021 she was twice hospitalised due to severe malnutrition and a rapid deterioration of her health.
In January 2025, Zhang Zhan again re-started her hunger strike in protest of her second arrest. In response, detention centre personnel have subjected her to forced-feeding through a gastric tube – a practice that may amount to torture or other ill-treatment, in violation of the Convention against Torture ratified by China in 1988. Her lawyer has been allowed to meet with her but has been under pressure from the authorities not to disclose the case details publicly.
Despite the relentless calls of the international community to immediately release Zhang Zhan, the Chinese government continues to ignore the urgency of the matter. Yet, the restrictions against journalists or anyone who speaks out against the abuse of the government has tightened drastically, despite the right to freedom of speech and press being guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as by Article 35 of the Chinese Constitution. Zhang’s prosecution is being used as a warning to others who might challenge the government’s propaganda machine.
Zhang Zhan’s arbitrary detention is a mockery of China’s international human rights obligations to ensure humane prison conditions. Furthermore, Zhang Zhan has committed no internationally recognisable offence, but has been subjected to harsh punishment for reporting on facts and exercising her right to freedom of expression.
We urge the Chinese government to:
We urge UN bodies and officials, including High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, and governments concerned with human rights in China to:
Signatories:
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