China jails citizen journalist Zhang Zhan for four years over Wuhan coronavirus reports

Zhang Zhan. Lawyer. Reported on the Virus. Jailed.

This really is crappy news. I’m inclined to say it’s an own goal, given that this four-year sentence is grist to the west’s anti-China mill. But the thing is: they don’t care what the west thinks, only what Chinese citizens think. They must “tremble and obey” because they -- the masses -- see what happens if you speak freely. You end up in jail. In China. For four years. 

And so:

Citizen journalist Zhang Zhan was sentenced to four years in prison in Shanghai on Monday for her reporting of the coronavirus pandemic in central Chinese city of Wuhan early this year, one of her lawyers said.

Zhang, 37, was found guilty by Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court on Monday morning of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a broadly defined offence which carries a maximum sentence of five years and is often used by police to stifle dissent.
“Zhang Zhan attended the trial in a wheelchair and was in poor health,” lawyer Zhang Keke said.
“She did not immediately say if she would appeal [against the sentence].”

Meantime: good on the SCMP for continuing to report this sort of story.

PS: “Picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. What a nonsense charge. What a wonderfully, horribly Leninist charge. A gruesome Stalinist charge. A pathetic Xi Jinping-ist charge.