Zhang Zhan | US asks China to free jailed Wuhan citizen journalist

The U.S. state department has urged China to release citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, expressing deep concerns over her deteriorating health, BBC reported.
Zhang was given a four-year jail term over her reporting of the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan when the pandemic began.
She has been on an intermittent hunger strike since she was detained in May last year.
The U.S. moves comes after reports that she is perilously close to death.
“We have repeatedly expressed our serious concerns about the arbitrary nature of her detention and her mistreatment during it,” U.S .State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters.
Zhang, a 38-year-old lawyer, had initially travelled to Wuhan in February 2020 after reading an online post by a resident about life in the city during the outbreak.
Once there, she began documenting what she saw on the streets and hospitals in livestreams and essays, despite threats by authorities, and her reports were widely shared on social media, the BBC report says.
According to BBC, in May she was found guilty of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”
Zhang started a hunger strike in protest while in jail. Since then, she has drastically lost weight and reportedly been held in physical restraints and force-fed through a tube.
Her family have sought medical parole amidst fears she will not make it through the winter. However, her brother told Hong Kong media that the chance of approval is “extremely slim.” MDT