The Chinese government’s recent detentions of two outspoken critics—visual artist Gao Zhen and citizen journalist Zhang Zhan—highlight the continuing suppression of free speech and the shrinking space for artistic expression and principled activism in China.
Zhang Zhan, a lawyer-turned-citizen journalist, was imprisoned for four years for her reporting on Wuhan’s lockdown in the early days of the COVID pandemic. At one point, after a hunger strike to protest her imprisonment, she was severely emaciated and in dangerously ill health. Upon being released from prison in mid-May of this year, Zhang continued her activism, but was reportedly kept under close surveillance by the Chinese authorities. According to Chinese human-rights focused website Weiquanwang, Zhang was apprehended by police while traveling to her hometown in Shaanxi province, in northwest China, on August 28, and is currently being held in Pudong Detention Center in Shanghai. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Director of Campaigns Rebecca Vincent issued a statement calling for Zhang’s immediate release: “After barely surviving four years in prison and living under strict surveillance ever since, it is clear that the Chinese authorities remain intent on continuing to punish Zhang Zhan for her independent journalism.” A statement from Amnesty International described the ongoing persecution and harassment Zhang had experienced since her release, culminating in this latest detention:
“The depressingly predictable re-detention of Zhang Zhan is the culmination of the government’s ongoing campaign of harassment against her, even after she was ‘freed’ from prison. Since being released, Zhang has been subjected to surveillance that has intensified over the past month,” Amnesty International’s China Director, Sarah Brooks, said.
“This latest detention underscores the Chinese authorities’ intractable intolerance of dissent and of Zhang Zhan herself, who despite being unjustly jailed has continued to raise her voice in solidarity with other human rights activists since being released. She has been re-detained because she refused to be silenced.”
Following her release in May, Zhang Zhan expressed concern that her online speech was being monitored by authorities.
According to information received by Amnesty International, she was regularly and repeatedly taken in for police questioning over the past month, with some interrogations lasting over 10 hours. [Source]
Another high-profile detention has drawn attention to the perils of artistic expression—in this case, relating to artworks that were created over a decade ago by Gao Zhen and Gao Qiang, an artistic duo known as the Gao Brothers. Yan Zhuang and Zixu Wang of The New York Times described the circumstances surrounding elder brother Gao Zhen’s recent detention by authorities in Sanhe, a city in Hebei province:
The police in Sanhe City detained Gao Zhen, who moved to the United States two years ago, last week while he was visiting China, his younger brother said in an email, on suspicion of slandering China’s heroes and martyrs — a criminal offense punishable by up to three years in prison.
The police also confiscated several of the brothers’ artworks, all of which were created more than 10 years ago and “reassessed Mao’s Cultural Revolution,” Gao Qiang said. The works included “Mao’s Guilt”; “The Execution of Christ,” a statue depicting Jesus facing down a firing squad of Maos; and “Miss Mao,” a collection of statues of Mao with large breasts and a protruding, Pinocchio-like nose.
About 30 police officers stormed the brothers’ art studio on Aug. 26 in Yanjiao, a town in Sanhe City about an hour away from Beijing, Gao Qiang said. The officers asked Gao Zhen, 68, to hand over his mobile phone, and when he refused, they handcuffed and arrested him, Gao Qiang said. Gao Zhen was in China with his wife and son, visiting relatives, his brother said.
The next day, Gao Zhen’s wife was notified by the Sanhe City public security bureau that he was being detained on suspicion of slandering heroes and martyrs, Gao Qiang, 62, said. [Source]
Gao Qiang told the Guardian, “I believe that applying retroactive punishment for actions that took place before the new law came into effect contradicts the ‘principle of non-retroactivity,’ which is a widely accepted standard in modern rule of law. There is a clear boundary between artistic creation and criminal behaviour.” Noting that the regulations his brother purportedly violated were only introduced within the past two years, Gao Qiang told ArtNet, “This situation is exactly what those works were meant to critique.”
Meanwhile, intrepid environmental activist and whistleblower Wu Yanrong has been released, two weeks after he was detained by authorities near the border of Shaanxi Province and Inner Mongolia. Wu had traveled there to protest large-scale pollution caused by a state-owned wind power company.
Lastly, it appears that Douban has deleted all mentions of the works of independent filmmaker Wang Bing, whose documentary film “Youth (Homecoming)”—the last installment of his “Youth” trilogy about Chinese textile workers—is currently screening in competition at the Venice Film Festival.
