U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement Tuesday (Dec. 29) on the Chinese Communist Party’s sentencing of citizen journalist Zhang Zhan to four years in prison, demanding that the authorities immediately and unconditionally release him.
The verdict in Zhang’s case was handed down on the spot within two hours of the opening of the court session by a Communist Party judge at the Pudong New Area Court in Shanghai on Monday morning (28), where he was sentenced to four years in prison. More than a dozen foreign diplomats and Zhang’s supporters were denied access outside the courtroom, and police later removed them, along with reporters from the scene.
In a statement Tuesday, Pompeo said the U.S. strongly condemned the Communist Party authorities’ campaign to falsely prosecute and convict Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan on Monday, and called on them to release him immediately and unconditionally.
“The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has once again demonstrated that it will stop at nothing to silence those who question the official party line, even when important public health information is at stake.” The statement said.
Lies are a hallmark of authoritarian regimes,” Pompeo said.
“From the beginning, the CCP restricted and manipulated information about the Wuhan outbreak of the New Coronavirus (COVID-19, a Chinese Communist virus) and brutally silenced others who were brave enough to speak the truth, such as Dr. Li Wenliang, Chen Qiushi and Fang Bin.
“The Chinese Communist Party has committed gross malfeasance by increasing the rest of the world’s reliance on uncensored reports from citizen journalists like Zhang Zhan about the real situation in Wuhan after it imposed strict media controls that turned a manageable outbreak into a deadly global pandemic.”
In addition, Pompeo said the CCP’s refusal to allow foreign observers to sit in on the case and its hasty trial of Zhang Zhan both demonstrate “how fearful the CCP is of Chinese citizens who speak the truth.”
Pompeo said, “The Chinese [Communist Party] government’s fear of transparency and its ongoing suppression of basic freedoms is a sign of cowardice, it’s not a sign of strength, it’s a threat to all of us.”
Pompeo emphasized that the United States will continue to support the rights of Chinese citizens to freely and peacefully express their opinions.
Zhang Zhan is the first citizen journalist to be sentenced by Communist authorities for covering the Wuhan outbreak.
The New York Times reported that prosecutors charged Zhang with “provoking trouble,” a charge often used against government critics, and that Zhang’s prosecution is part of an ongoing Communist Party propaganda campaign to reframe the Communist authorities’ handling of the outbreak as a series of smart and successful government actions.
So far, critics pointing to officials’ initial mishandling have been arrested, censored or threatened by police; three other citizen journalists disappeared from Wuhan before Zhang Zhan, but others have not yet been publicly charged.
Amnesty International said it is deeply troubling that Zhang Zhan is facing such punishment from the Chinese Communist authorities for simply reporting on a news story of public interest.
Amnesty International called for “Zhang Zhan’s immediate and unconditional release unless the authorities have sufficient credible and court-admissible evidence that she has committed internationally recognized crimes and that she is given a fair trial in accordance with international standards.”
In February 2020, Zhang Zhan personally traveled to Wuhan to do on-the-ground interviews on the epidemic as the Chinese Communist virus spread in the city; she used social media platforms to post numerous video reports on the epidemic and people’s lives in Wuhan.
On May 14, 2020, Zhang was arrested by the Shanghai police in the hotel where she was staying in Wuhan, and the following day she was arrested on suspicion of “provoking and provoking trouble” and detained in Pudong New District Detention Center.
On June 18, 2020, Zhang Zhan was formally arrested on the same charge, and on August 18, Zhang Zhan’s case was sent to Shanghai Pudong New Area Procuratorate for review and prosecution.
According to the indictment released on November 13, the Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Procuratorate recommended that Zhang Zhan be sentenced to more than four years and less than five years in prison for the crime of “provoking and provoking trouble.
The indictment alleges that Zhang Zhan “fabricated lies and spread false information” and that she gave interviews to “foreign media” such as Radio Free Asia and the Epoch Times.
Recent Comments