Chinese COVID whistleblower sentenced to 4 more years in jail, group says
CNN6 days
Chinese Journalist Zhang Zhan Sentenced to Additional Prison Time
Above: Tiananmen Square on June 4, 2025. Image copyright: Johannes Neudecker/picture alliance/Getty Images
The Spin
Anti-China narrative
Zhang Zhan deserves recognition as an information hero who courageously exposed the truth about China's mishandling of COVID when the government was downplaying the severity of the outbreak. Her firsthand reporting from Wuhan's crowded hospitals revealed the reality that authorities were trying to hide from the world. The international community must increase diplomatic pressure on Beijing to secure her immediate release from these brutal prison conditions.
Pro-China narrative
China's COVID record speaks for itself — lives saved, deaths minimized, vaccines deployed, and an economy kept resilient while much of the West floundered. Beijing's measured shift from zero-COVID is science-based and responsible, not reckless. Western media's distortions only reveal their bias, while misreporting from within China is being rightly punished. There can't be two ways about justice being served.