China’s well-known human rights activist Zhang Zhan has been detained by authorities for almost a month since August. On the morning of September 19, Guangzhou human rights lawyer Fan Biaowen met with Zhang Zhan’s mother at Zhangjiang Metro Station in Shanghai to learn about the situation. Shortly after their meeting, Fan Biaowen was forcibly taken away by four or five police officers.
Meanwhile, Zhang Zhan’s mother was blocked by the police and unable to move until Fan Biaowen disappeared from sight. Zhang Zhan’s mother said she would go to the police station to inquire about the situation. If she doesn’t receive any news by the evening, she might also have been detained by the police.
According to a report on a human rights website on the 20th, Zhang Zhan’s mother is still missing, and Fan Biaowen has been illegally detained for nearly 8 hours without being released.
According to the latest news from the human rights website on the 20th, Zhang Zhan has been criminally detained by the authorities on suspicion of “provoking trouble” and is currently being held in Pudong Detention Center. Zhang Zhan had previously disclosed that she was warned by public security in June this year and might be sent back to prison if she crossed the red line again.
Zhang Zhan, who is 41 years old, was born in Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province, and is a resident of Pudong New Area in Shanghai. She was a senior executive at a securities firm in Shanghai and a former practicing lawyer.
In 2020, Zhang Zhan went to Wuhan as a citizen journalist to report on the COVID-19 pandemic and posted related articles on social media platforms. She was later sentenced to four years in prison by the authorities for “provoking trouble.”
Zhang Zhan was released after serving her sentence in May this year. Three months later, she went to Gansu to rescue Zhang Pancheng, a young democratic activist who had been arrested, and persuaded Zhang’s mother to sign a power of attorney. After returning to her hometown in Xianyang, Shaanxi, she was taken back to Shanghai by the police on August 25 and has been missing ever since.
Before being arrested by the police, Zhang Zhan had repeatedly spoken out on overseas social media platforms for Zhang Pancheng, calling for attention to his “disappearance.”