Missing Citizen Who Exposed COVID-19 Situation in China... Scheduled for Release After 3 Years

by Koo Nari

Published 01 May.2023 10:03(KST)

Updated 01 May.2023 23:16(KST)

"Return Power to the People" Disappeared While Resisting

According to foreign media including the US ABC News on the 30th of last month, a citizen who was missing after exposing the situation in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, where COVID-19 first spread in 2020, is scheduled to be released after three years.

The media, citing his relatives and sources, reported that the citizen journalist 'Fang Bin,' who disappeared three years ago, is expected to be released. Sources said he was sentenced to three years in prison by Chinese authorities on charges of "picking fights and making trouble." This charge is an expression used by Chinese authorities under the public disturbance law and is mainly known to be applied to sanction dissidents.

Citizen journalist Fang Bin, who uploaded on YouTube a video showing the on-site situation of COVID-19 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. [Photo source=Screenshot from Fang Bin's YouTube video]

Fang Bin is said to have worked as a clothing merchant before the COVID-19 outbreak. Then, in early 2020 during the spread of COVID-19, he posted videos on social networking services (SNS) such as Twitter showing unfiltered scenes of long waiting lines at hospitals, patients in weak condition, and suffering families.

In particular, he captured a scene of eight body bags placed in a beige van parked in front of a Wuhan hospital and posted a video lamenting, "Too many people have died," which led to his arrest by the authorities. After being released, he revealed in a video posted on February 2 that the authorities had confiscated his laptop and interrogated him about the circumstances of filming the body bag footage.

In his last video posted on February 9, Fang Bin said he was surrounded by plainclothes police officers and criticized "lust for power" and "dictatorship." He then showed a paper that read, "All citizens resist. Return power to the people." After that, he disappeared.

At the time of Fang Bin's disappearance, many citizen journalists exposed the situation in Wuhan through videos, and it is known that they were also missing or arrested. China maintained a strong 'Zero COVID' policy for three years but eased quarantine measures following the 'Blank Paper Protests' at the end of November last year. Then, in January of this year, China reopened its borders and shifted to a 'With COVID' policy.