According to reports, Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan is currently detained at the Pudong Detention Center. Recently, Zhang Zhan traveled alone to Gansu to rescue Gansu youth activist Zhang Pan who was recently arrested by the Chinese Communist Party, but was taken away by Shanghai police from Xianyang, Shaanxi.
On September 1st, rights advocacy websites reported that through multiple sources of information, Zhang Zhan’s detention by the authorities was confirmed, and she is being held at the Pudong Detention Center. It is still unclear whether she is under criminal detention or administrative detention.
On August 30, the rights advocacy website had reported that after convincing Zhang Pan’s mother to sign a power of attorney, Zhang Zhan returned to her hometown in Xianyang, Shaanxi, only to be taken back by Shanghai police, and as of now, more than 36 hours have passed with no news.
Zhang Zhan’s post on X platform on August 22 read: “After finally persuading the reticent Zhang Pan’s mother to sign her name on the power of attorney to appoint a lawyer, and promising not to speak a word about their family’s ordeal to the public.”
She continued: “Because the police can bring disaster to this family at any time. And his mother, with the feeling of ‘better off dead,’ trembled to sign her name on the power of attorney.”
The information posted by Zhang Zhan on her X account shows that she and Zhang Pan are Christian friends. After Zhang Pan was arrested, Zhang Zhan, who used to be a lawyer, went to Gansu in an attempt to rescue him.
In February 2020, Zhang Zhan traveled from Shanghai to Wuhan, Hubei to expose the local COVID-19 epidemic, then was arrested by the CCP in May of the same year, and sentenced to 4 years in prison on the charge of “provoking trouble” in December of the same year. She was released on May 13 this year.
On June 11, the rights advocacy website reported that after Zhang Zhan was released from prison, she was summoned and threatened by Shanghai police. On June 9, Zhang Zhan posted on her social media: “The police said, touching the red line again will lead to detention. Which ‘red line’ are you protecting? Is it the lives of the common people, or ‘the opinions of the superior?’ I don’t want to go in, and I’m not supposed to go in.”
On June 23, after setting up her X account, Zhang Zhan frequently posted articles focusing on dissenters and social issues.