作者：朱茱
By Zhu Zhu
The English translation follows below.
一年前的今天，也就是2024年8月28日，中国公民记者张展因涉嫌“寻衅滋事罪”被上海警方从陕西咸阳的家中抓走。目前，她被中国当局关押，案件尚未开庭。
今年42岁的张展出生于陕西咸阳，是西南财经大学金融学硕士，2010年作为金融人才引进上海，曾任律师。她原本可以作为白领人士在上海过衣食无忧的生活，却因为关心社会议题，在网络平台积极发声并参与维权活动，被注销了律师执照。2020年新冠疫情爆发后，她孤身前往被封城的武汉，对当地情况进行独立报道，成为新冠疫情中出现的最著名的中国公民记者之一，并随即招致中国政府的一系列打压。
2020年2月1日，张展到达武汉，与同一时期的方斌、李泽华、陈秋实等“公民记者”一样，她开始拍摄记录武汉在疫情笼罩下的真实状况：从空荡荡的街头和商场，到戒备森严的居民社区；从人满为患的医院，到昼夜运转的火葬场；从聚集无家可归打工者的火车站，到埋葬着“新冠逝者”的公墓；从方舱医院的工地，到敏感的武汉病毒研究所。张展冒着病毒和被捕的双重危险，为国人记录了这段惨痛历史的珍贵点滴，并通过社交平台（推特和YouTube）发布视频和评论，呼吁变革。她在武汉封城前后的100多个视频，至今依然可以在她的YouTube频道上看到，中国民间档案馆也已将其备份保存。
2020年5月14日，张展在武汉被上海警方逮捕，罪名是“寻衅滋事”。“寻衅滋事”是中国刑法中的“口袋罪”（即什么行为都可以往里装的罪名），许多维权人士都因“寻衅滋事”而被捕。但事实和常识都可以表明，张展在武汉的拍摄记录，以及她一些象征性的抗议活动，按照中国刑法的原本语义，并不能构成“寻衅滋事”的犯罪。
根据中国官方的判决书，张展的罪证就是在境外社交媒体上发布的文字和视频，并称其为“谣言”。由此可见，张展实际上是被因言治罪——而她的“罪”，无非是记录下武汉疫情的真相，并将真相传播给世界。
根据辩护律师的记述，2020年12月28日张展在开庭时，为自己辩护，并发问：“政府指控人民的讲话，这种指控本身是错误的。因为这意味着我每句话要被审查。国家有权力审查公民言论吗？”
法庭上，张展质问审判长：“你不觉得你把我推上被告席，你的良心会告诉你这是错误的吗？”可见，她清晰地知道自己在做什么，也坚守自己的价值观，即使面临被重判的威胁，也依然勇敢地表达出自己的所思所想。
因为拒绝认罪，并在关押期间绝食抗争，张展最终被官方重判四年，于2024年5月才得以刑满释放，但被释放仅仅三个月，她就再次被以相同罪名抓捕。
关于张展抗争的细节以及她的很多故事，都可以在《自由张展》一书中读到。该书由人道中国理事王剑虹主编，2024年5月张展即将被释放之前集结成书。这部向公众开放的电子书有近600页，不仅包括张展的自述、文章、书信和法庭发言，也收录了大量张展的支持者在社交媒体上声援她的文字资料。
这种全面的收集，使人们得以从多个维度理解张展作为一个行动者的公共价值。张展虽然失去了自由，但通过《自由张展》一书，她的行动理念也得以与世人共享。
《自由张展》对张展言行和社会反响的记录，还具有深层次的历史意义和公共意义。《自由张展》的出版，也为其他良心犯提供了一个可借鉴的思路：通过广泛的资料收集与网络公开发行，集中、系统地保存与传播他们的思想和声音，从而构建非官方的公共记忆空间。
从书中人们可以看出，基督教信仰在张展的行动以及她的生命中扮演了重要角色。张展作为一名基督徒，多次在发言和通信中引用圣经，并在武汉封城期间向市民传教。她对正义的坚守，也深受基督教义的启发，她曾说：“当然应该寻求真理，不计成本地寻求。真理一直是这个世界最昂贵的东西，它就是我们的生命。”
从《自由张展》中数十篇声援张展的文章中可以看出，张展的支持者十分广泛，她所践行的记录真相、质疑权力，以及不卑不亢的姿态，可以在法治和人权的普世价值框架下被世人理解，她的勇敢也可以打动那些生活在专制统治中、时时感到恐惧的人们。
说起恐惧，初次听说张展的所作所为的人也许会认为，张展已经战胜了恐惧，才能鼓起勇气进行常人想都不敢想的抗争。不过，看过张展的视频，读过《自由张展》，人们可以知道，张展实际上明知入狱的结果，也因此感到十分恐惧。她的行动，不是出于天真或鲁莽，而是源于她内心深处的正义感，促使她鼓起勇气，并去挑战心中的恐惧。
张展对正义和真相的坚持，并不意味着她是完美无缺的。她的哥哥张举曾表示，张展虽然爱世人，但是她的行动在客观上加重了父母和其他家人的精神负担。此外，张展在狱中坚持绝食抗争，一度奄奄一息，让不少支持她的人十分担忧。
与这种关心相对比的，是网络上——包括张展拍摄武汉疫情的YouTube视频评论区里，都有大量辱骂张展的声音。很多评论侮辱张展为精神疾病患者，有的还认为她败坏了中国防疫的形象。
这种反应，与政权的逻辑如出一辙。当2019年张展先后两次在上海街头展示“结束社会主义，共产党下台”的标语时，上海警方的措施之一，是对张展进行强制精神病检查。事实上，将政治异议病理化，是世界上许多专制政权的典型手段——将对政权的批评抗议转化为对抗议者的人身攻击。
排除“水军”的言论，张展视频评论区里那些谩骂和反对的声音，也不乏所谓的实用主义者。当中国疫情在2020年得到控制，而许多其他国家的染病人数和死亡人数都飞速增高时，评论区里的一种声音开始占上风：中国的封城政策是正确的。
但是，像张展一样的批评者，更关注的，并不是具体防疫措施的正确与否，而是呼吁言论自由和公民权利。正是由于自由与权利的匮乏，才出现封城和“清零”期间的诸多荒谬与惨剧，让人们在病毒的威胁之外，也失去作为公民的尊严。
那些因中国防疫措施而沾沾自喜的评论，很快被中国失败的“清零”政策和“清零”结束后的大规模感染和上百万人因病死亡的事实“打脸”。张展在武汉封城期间对自由和权利的呼吁，则经受了时间的考验。
2024年5月，张展出狱后就新创立了一个YouTube账号，在视频评论区内，绝大多数都是她的支持者，有不少人称张展为“英雄”，还有一些评论者说自己是武汉人，感激张展对历史、对真相的记录。
如今，面对将要到来的再一次审判，张展很可能再次面临长达多年的关押。但她的支持者则坚信，正义站在张展一边。张展也在2020年开庭时对法官说道：“这是审判你的法庭，不是审判我的法庭。”
本期推荐档案：
Free Zhang Zhan: Constructing Public Space for Memory
By Zhu Zhu
Exactly one year ago today, on August 28, 2024, Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan was arrested by Shanghai police at her home in Xianyang, Shaanxi province, on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” She is currently being detained, and her case has not yet gone to trial.
Zhang, now 42, was born in Xianyang, Shaanxi Province. She holds a master’s degree in finance and moved to Shanghai in 2010 as a financial professional, later working as a lawyer. Zhang could have led a comfortable life as a white-collar professional in Shanghai, but her concern for social issues led her to become an active voice on online platforms and to participate in civil rights defense, which resulted in the revocation of her lawyer’s license by the Chinese authorities.
After the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in 2020, she went to the locked-down city of Wuhan alone to conduct independent reporting. She became one of the most prominent Chinese citizen journalists to emerge during the pandemic and immediately faced a series of suppressive actions from the Chinese government.
On February 1, 2020, Zhang Zhan arrived in Wuhan by train. Like other citizen journalists of that time—including Fang Bin, Li Zehua, and Chen Qiushi—she began documenting the reality of Wuhan under the pandemic lockdown. She recorded everything from deserted streets to heavily guarded residential communities, from overcrowded hospitals to crematories operating day and night, from train stations where homeless migrant workers gathered to cemeteries where the first victims of the COVID-19 pandemic were buried. She even filmed the construction of makeshift hospitals and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Risking both the virus and arrest, Zhang documented precious details of this painful historical period for the Chinese people, posting videos and commentary on social media (Twitter and YouTube) to call for change. (Her more than 100 videos from before and after the Wuhan lockdown can still be viewed on her YouTube channel, and the China Unofficial Archives has backed up those videos on the Internet Archive.)
On May 14, 2020, Zhang was arrested by Shanghai police in Wuhan on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” which is an infamous pocket crime in Chinese criminal law that has been used to prosecute many human rights defenders. However, based on the facts, Zhang’s filming and her symbolic protests in Wuhan did not constitute a crime within the plain meaning of China’s criminal law.
According to the Chinese authorities, Zhang’s evidence of crime was the text and videos she posted on foreign social media platforms, which they labeled as “rumors.” This shows that Zhang was, in fact, being punished for her speech—and her crime was nothing more than documenting the truth of the Wuhan pandemic and spreading that truth to the world.
According to her defense lawyer’s account, during her court hearing on December 28, 2020, Zhang Zhan defended herself by asking, “The government’s accusation against people’s speech is itself wrong. It means every word of mine must be censored. Does the state have the power to censor its citizens’ speech?”
In court, Zhang questioned the presiding judge: “Don’t you feel, as you put me in the defendant’s seat, that your conscience tells you this is wrong?” This shows that she was clearly aware of her actions and stood firm in her values, expressing her thoughts even while facing the threat of a heavy sentence.
Because she refused to plead guilty and went on a hunger strike while in detention, Zhang was ultimately handed a sentence of four years. She was released in May 2024 after serving her full term, but three months later, she was arrested again on the same charge.
Details of Zhang’s struggles and many of her stories can be found in the book Free Zhang Zhan. Edited by Wang Jianhong, a U.K.-based activist with Humanitarian China, the book was compiled and published in May 2024, shortly before Zhang’s release. The nearly 600-page e-book, available for free online, includes Zhang’s own accounts, articles, letters, and court statements, as well as a large collection of supportive messages posted by her supporters on social media.
This comprehensive collection allows people to understand Zhang’s public value as an activist from multiple perspectives. Although she has lost her freedom, through the book Free Zhang Zhan, her ideals and actions can be shared with the public at large.
The book’s documentation of Zhang’s words, deeds, and the response from society provides a valuable framework for other prisoners of conscience in China. Through collecting Zhang Zhan’s writings and those of her supporters and disseminating information and providing updates about Zhang Zhan online (via https://freezhangzhan.org/), Free Zhang Zhan has systematically constructed an unofficial space for honoring and advocating for Zhang Zhan.
From the book, people can see the important role that her Christian faith played in Zhang’s activism and in her life. As a Christian, Zhang often quoted the Bible in her statements and correspondence and preached to residents during the Wuhan lockdown. Her commitment to justice was also deeply inspired by Christian teachings. She once said, “Of course, one should seek the truth, and seek it regardless of the cost. Truth has always been the most valuable thing in this world; it is our very life.”
The book shows that Zhang has a wide range of supporters. Her practice of documenting the truth, questioning authority, and maintaining dignity and self-respect can be understood by the world beyond the framework of Christianity and within the universal framework of the rule of law and human rights. Her courage can also move those who live under an autocratic regime and are constantly filled with fear.
Speaking of fear, people hearing about Zhang’s actions for the first time might think that she must have overcome fear to muster the courage for a struggle that most people would not even dare to imagine. However, after watching Zhang’s videos and reading Free Zhang Zhan, one can see that Zhang was, in fact, well aware of the likely outcome of imprisonment and was therefore fearful. Her actions were not born of naivety or recklessness but of a sense of justice that compelled her to summon her courage and challenge her fear.
Zhang’s insistence on justice and truth doesn’t mean she is flawless. Her brother, Zhang Ju, once said that while Zhang Zhan loves all people, her actions have increased the mental burden on her parents and other family members. Furthermore, Zhang’s prolonged hunger strike in prison left her on the brink of death, causing great concern among many of her supporters.
In contrast to this concern, the comments section of her YouTube videos—and other online spaces—is filled with a large amount of abuse and insults directed at Zhang. Many commenters call her mentally ill, while some believe she has damaged China’s image regarding its response to the pandemic.
This reaction is in lockstep with the Chinese authorities’ logic. When Zhang held up banners in Shanghai in 2019 that read “End Socialism, Communist Party Step Down,” one of the first measures taken by the Shanghai police was to subject her to a mandatory psychiatric examination. In fact, pathologizing political dissent is a typical tactic used by many authoritarian regimes worldwide—transforming criticism and protest against the government into a personal attack on the protester.
Excluding comments from trolls, the voices in Zhang’s video comments section also include so-called pragmatists. When the pandemic in China was under control in 2020, and the number of infections and deaths in many other countries was soaring, a certain narrative began to prevail in the comments: China’s lockdown policy was correct.
However, critics like Zhang were not primarily concerned with the specific correctness of the pandemic measures but rather with advocating for freedom of speech and civil rights. It was precisely the lack of these freedoms and rights that led to the numerous absurdities and tragedies that occurred during China’s lockdowns and the “zero-COVID” policy, causing many people to lose their dignity in addition to facing the threat of the virus.
Those comments that were self-satisfied with China’s pandemic measures were soon confronted by the reality of the failure of the “zero-COVID” policy and the subsequent large-scale infections and millions of deaths in China. Zhang Zhan’s calls for freedom and rights during the Wuhan lockdown, however, have stood the test of time.
In May 2024, after her release, Zhang created a new YouTube channel. The comment section of her videos was overwhelmingly filled with messages of support. Many called her a hero, and some commenters who identified themselves as Wuhan residents expressed their gratitude for her documentation of history and truth.
On August 28, 2024, Zhang Zhan was re-arrested for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” after she continued to speak out on social media and publicly supported Zhang Pancheng, a Chinese citizen who was detained for advocating for democracy.
Now, facing an upcoming second trial, Zhang is likely to be imprisoned for many more years. But her supporters firmly believe that justice is on her side. As Zhang told the judge during her 2020 court hearing: “This is the court that is judging you, not me.”
Recommended archives:
Zhang Zhan’s 2020 YouTube videos (introduction)
Zhang Zhan’s 2020 YouTube videos (backup by China Unofficial Archives)