Zhang Zhan's footage of bedridden patients lining a hospital corridor in Wuhan gave a rare, unvarnished glimpse from China's coronavirus ground zero in the first months of the pandemic.

The video was one of many that helped land the citizen journalist and former lawyer in jail, where she has been severely weakened by a hunger strike to protest her treatment.

In another clip, Zhang calmly faces down a security officer who accosts her and orders her to stop filming.

"It's my right to monitor the government," she says, as the man attempts to snatch away her phone.

Zhang has become "symbolic" of the quest to uncover what happened in China at the start of the Covid-19 outbreak, her lawyer said.

But sharing her amateur footage with the wider community came at a high price for the 37-year-old.

She was detained in May and, seven months later, sentenced to four years in jail for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble".

Her real crime, however, seems to have been publishing a narrative of the pandemic that China does not want to be told.

Beijing's version extols the strong leadership of the Communist Party in the health crisis while glossing over the fear, confusion and criticism over early handling of the issue.

Zhang decided to travel to Wuhan from Shanghai in February 2020, after an online post by a Wuhan resident motivated her to find out the truth behind the outbreak.

"He said he felt like he was left there to die, I was very touched by what he wrote," Zhang said in a documentary about her by an anonymous filmmaker, posted on the website China Change.

By then, officials had put the bustling transport hub under an unprecedented lockdown as they scrambled to contain the mysterious new virus that soon became known as Covid-19.

From Wuhan, Zhang posted footage filmed on the streets, and she questioned issues such as access to virus testing and hospital capacity.

She also tried to campaign for grieving relatives of Covid-19 victims, who were seeking compensation.

"She went to Wuhan with sympathy and a desire to help people," said one of her lawyers, who asked not to be identified.

"Will tragedies like this happen again and again because the factors behind them are not resolved, and the system creating the tragedy is still running?" he asked.

Several other citizen journalists also travelled to Wuhan during the early stages of the outbreak, but Zhang is the first to face trial.

- 'She wants to protest her treatment' -

Behind bars, Zhang's health has deteriorated.

She has been on hunger strike and force-fed through nasal tubes with her limbs restrained for long periods, according to the lawyer.

She had become very thin and almost unrecognisable by Christmas.

"By not eating, she wants to protest against the illegal nature of her treatment," said Zhang Keke, a member of her legal team.

"She believes that not eating is a way to tell them they are wrong."

When she appeared in court later in December, she was frail in a wheelchair, but defiant.

She spoke little during the trial and refused to answer a judge who asked her to confirm her identity.

While she has become a symbol of resistance abroad, at home she meets a mixed response.

On the day of her trial, around a dozen supporters and diplomats gathered outside the court to show support.

"What she has done is totally unselfish, completely disregarding her own interests, and all for the benefit of society," Ren Quanniu, another of her lawyers, told AFP.

But online, she has been accused of having "bad intentions" and asked who was sponsoring her messages.

Despite her critics and her deteriorating health, she has refused to appeal.

"She believes the whole system is absurd," said Zhang Keke.

"Zhang Zhan wouldn't compromise... (She said) that she has never been so determined."

Dozens of Hong Kong dissidents jailed after marathon bail hearing
Hong Kong (AFP) March 4, 2021 - Dozens of Hong Kong dissidents charged with subversion were sent to jail on Thursday at the end of a marathon bail hearing that reignited international alarm over China's crackdown on dissent in the finance hub.

Police charged 47 of the city's best-known democracy activists on Sunday for "conspiracy to commit subversion" in the broadest use yet of a sweeping national security law that Beijing imposed on the city last year.

The defendants represent a wide cross-section of Hong Kong's opposition, from veteran former pro-democracy lawmakers to academics, lawyers, social workers and youth activists.

What followed was an extraordinary four-day bail hearing that illustrated the profound changes Beijing's security law has begun making to the financial hub's legal traditions.

On Thursday evening, after hours of arguments from prosecutors and defence, chief magistrate Victor So ordered 32 members of the group to be returned to custody.

"The court does not find it has sufficient ground to believe that you will not continue to commit acts that endanger national security," he told the court.

The remaining 15 defendants were granted bail but the prosecution immediately appealed. As a result they were also ordered back to custody but will be allowed to take their case to the city's High Court within the next 48 hours.

- Anger outside court -

Emotional scenes erupted outside the court on Thursday evening as news of the decision filtered out to dozens of relatives and supporters.

"They want to silence all voices they don't like," a woman who gave her first name as Elsa and identified herself as the step-mother of defendant Hendrick Lui, told reporters.

"These are the voices of justice that Hong Kong people need. But the evil regime is trying to cover their mouths, silence them and put them behind bars," she added.

Some of the city's most prominent Beijing critics will now remain in custody for months as prosecutors prepare for a mass trial -- in what one analyst has described as the largest subversion prosecution since the aftermath of the deadly 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.

The ruling also cements how the security law overturns the presumption of bail for non-violent crimes.

Under the new law -- which Beijing imposed on the city last June -- defendants will only get bail if they can persuade a court they no longer pose any kind of national security risk.

Almost all have failed and the handful of bail requests granted so far have been immediately appealed by Hong Kong's prosecutors.

Reporting limitations forbid detailing the minutiae of the legal arguments over the last four days after judge So declined a request to lift media restrictions.

- Hospital visits -

The alleged offence of those charged with subversion was organising an unofficial primary election last summer to choose candidates for the city's legislature, in the hopes that the pro-democracy bloc might take a majority and stymie government legislation.

Chinese and Hong Kong officials said this was an attempt to "overthrow" the city's government, and therefore a threat to national security.

With so many arrested at once, the court struggled to deal with the caseload.

The first day's hearing only ended in the small hours of the morning when one of the defendants collapsed.

Seven defendants had to be taken to hospital over the course of the hearing. Many complained of a lack of food, sleep, fresh clothes and showers.

The length of the hearing -- and the decision to bring charges despite the prosecution requesting a further three months to continue building their case -- sparked criticism in some legal circles.

"There is no reason at all to charge the defendants at this early stage," Johannes Chan, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong told AFP. "The only reason is to put them behind bars now."

Jerome Cohen, a veteran expert on Chinese law at New York University, said the way the hearing was conducted risked damaging the reputation of the territory's independent judiciary.

"The court system should never have arranged such a chaotic judicial review that has made Hong Kong's formerly revered judicial system look like the willing instrument of the police and prosecution," he wrote.

The United States, the European Union and Britain have led international censure of the mass subversion charges as well as the security law.

Chinese and Hong Kong authorities have dismissed that criticism, saying the legislation has brought stability and vowing to ensure only "staunch patriots" have any role in running the city.

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Row over who represents coup-hit Myanmar at UN
United Nations, United States (AFP) March 3, 2021
Myanmar's military junta and the envoy sent by its toppled civilian government have launched contradictory claims over who represents the country at the United Nations, officials said Tuesday. Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun spectacularly broke with the junta before the General Assembly on Friday in an emotional plea for help to restore ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The next day, the junta said the envoy had been sacked, but on Monday, Kyaw Moe Tun sent a letter to the president of the UN Gen ... read more