Zhang Zhan advocates for freedom of information, democracy, defence of human rights and accountability for violations in China. She is a former lawyer whose license was suspended in retaliation for her activism, and a well-known and outspoken journalist on the situation of human rights in China. 

In September 2019, Zhang Zhan was detained after displaying an umbrella in downtown Shanghai that called for an end to the Communist Party’s monopoly on power, in solidarity with the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. She was released after two months and a first hunger strike.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the lawyer turned citizen journalist braved the pervasive climate of fear in Wuhan to report on the families of victims who had been trying to hold the authorities to account and been harassed as a result.

On 28 December 2020, Zhang Zhan became the first citizen journalist in China to be sentenced for reporting on the pandemic. Officially, the four-year term that a court in Shanghai gave her was due to “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a common charge used to silence dissent.

Zhang Zhan was released from prison on 13 May 2024, after serving her four-year sentence. Following her release, she travelled to Gansu province to help pro-democracy activist Zhang Pancheng secure legal representation. For this action, she was taken into custody by Shanghai police on 28 August 2024. On 18 November 2024, she was formally arrested on the same charge of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble".