China sentences Coronavirus whistleblower to four years in prison.

 

A man holds up a picture of Zhang Zhan, the whistleblower. National Review.

China has sentenced a Coronavirus whistleblower to four years in prison. National Review. 37 year old Zhang Zhan had traveled to Wuhan to document the damage the Coronavirus was doing in China. Zhang posted videos of crowded hospitals and of citizens complaining about a loss of income. She also criticized Chinese censorship of reporters like her. Zhang was arrested and charged with "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" and her trial lasted less then three hours. Zhang appeared in a wheelchair and has been on a hunger strike since her arrest. She has been force fed since she has been in custody with a feeding tube. 

My Comment:

Though I am critical of journalism as a profession I have to say that Zhang Zhan was doing real journalism. Instead of making up nonsense and lying to people, she risked her life to tell the Chinese people and the world what the real conditions in Wuhan were. She deserves a ton of credit for that and what China is doing to her is terrible. 

Indeed, despite the horrible behavior of the current crop of journalism, you can tell a lot about a country in how they treat their journalists. In America we treat our journalists with kid gloves, even when they break the law. In China they throw them in prison and force feed them when they go on hunger strike. 

China deserves a lot of blame for the Coronavirus outbreak. If they had not kept the outbreak secret from the world other countries could have prepared themselves. If they had banned travel they could have prevented or at least delayed the outbreak, saving thousands of lives. But they did not and now we all have to deal with the fallout. 

So why doesn't China get more of the blame even though they could have prevented the pandemic and they are throwing journalists into prison for reporting the truth? Ironically enough it's because journalists are covering for them. Part of me thinks it is Trump Derangement Syndrome but I also think that China has a huge amount of influence. 

Will this story have an effect? Probably not. Like I said American journalism tends to cover for China and attacks anyone who criticizes them. And when it comes down to it the life of one journalist doesn't mean much internationally, as sad as it may seem.