The United States and European Union demanded that China release a citizen journalist jailed for reports from Wuhan, with top US diplomat Mike Pompeo accusing Beijing of covering up COVID-19.
Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer in custody since May, was on Monday handed four years in prison over her early online accounts that provided a rare, unvarnished glimpse of the city where the mysterious respiratory illness was first detected a year ago.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that he strongly condemned Zhang’s conviction and called for her immediate and unconditional release, accusing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of restricting and manipulating information about the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan.
“The Chinese Communist Party has shown once again it will do whatever it takes to silence those who question the party’s official line, even regarding crucial public health information,” Mr Pompeo said.
Ms Zhang’s reports challenged Beijing’s official narrative that the government valiantly defeated the virus, questioning hospital capacity and access to virus testing in the early days and showing aggression on the part of Chinese authorities to her filming on her phone.
The 37-year-old was sentenced by a Shanghai court for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.
Mr Pompeo is an outspoken critic of Beijing who has attacked China over its role in the origins of the pandemic, which has claimed more than 1.7 million lives worldwide.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivers remarks on China at Georgia Institute of Technology.
EPA
Amid criticism of Mr Trump’s handling of COVID-19, widely seen as a factor in his election defeat, Mr Pompeo has not ruled out theories, dismissed by mainstream scientists, that China deliberately unleashed the virus.
Mer Pompeo said Beijing’s censorship of Ms Zhang was more evidence of how a “controllable outbreak turned into a deadly global pandemic”.
“Lying is a feature, not a bug of authoritarian regimes,” Mr Pompeo said.
He said the Chinese government’s “fear of transparency and its ongoing repression of fundamental freedoms are a sign of weakness, not strength, and a threat to all of us”.
The European Union demanded that China release Ms Zhang, as well as 12 Hong Kong activists detained at sea.
“According to credible sources, Ms Zhang has been subject to torture and ill-treatment during her detention and her health condition has seriously deteriorated. It is crucial that she receives adequate medical assistance,” EU foreign policy spokesman Peter Stano said in a statement.
The EU statement comes as the bloc finalises on an investment deal with China after seven years of painstaking negotiations, despite concerns about Beijing’s rights record.
