Another example of what passes for the rule of law in the People’s Republic of China is the government’s treatment of Zhang Zhan.
Zhang (shown above) was one of the citizen journalists who documented conditions in Wuhan, capital of the Hubei Province of China, after the COVID-19 pandemic erupted there five years ago (Global Policy George W. Bush Institute, November 24, 2025).
In February 2020, as residents of Wuhan, China sought to flee the city at the epicenter of the highly contagious novel COVID-19 virus, Zhang Zhan instead rushed in. She was moved by an online post from a Wuhan resident who said he felt the city had been abandoned and he had been left there to die….
What she found stood in stark contrast to what China’s government was saying publicly, which was—essentially—that there was nothing to see here and the situation was under control.
While Chinese authorities sought to limit not only the spread of the new virus but the spread of information about the epidemic’s severity, Zhang published a “Wuhan Diary” over the next three months on social media to document the devastation and despair occurring under severe lockdown in the city of more than 11 million people.
Her 122 videos revealed a dystopian backdrop of empty streetscapes and business districts, struggling citizens desperate for work, overwhelmed medical facilities, heightened activity at the city’s crematoriums, and reprimands from security officers and health screeners who didn’t want her to reveal how massive the outbreak was.
For this kind of sin, Zhang has been in prison for the last five years. After serving a four-year sentence, she was released in May 2024; but she was arrested again a few months later, “likely in connection with online comments critical of the Chinese Communist Party.” A sound hypothesis.
In September 2025, she was sentenced to another four years for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” one of the CCP’s blanket charges wielded against critics of the regime. It’s something to write on the form.
Zhang had also been detained a couple of times in 2019, once in connection with her support for the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.
No notification
We should give credit where credit is due in the category of rule of law, adherence to which is one of the CCP’s often-asserted claims to virtue.
Although Zhang tried to appeal her most recent conviction, “she was impeded from meeting with independent counsel. China’s authorities regularly intimidate, slander, disbar, and even prosecute lawyers who attempt to defend human rights advocates.
“In mid-November, it was discovered that Zhang’s appeal had been summarily denied in a closed-door hearing, and she was transferred between detention centers without notification to her family or lawyer.”
Also see:
YouTube: Zhang’s videos about Wuhan
