Fang Bin () is a Chinese businessman,

citizen journalist Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism or street journalism, is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, a ...

and

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

who used

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and

WeChat WeChat () is a Chinese instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world's largest standalone mobile app in 2018, with over 1 billion monthly active users. WeChat has bee ...

to broadcast images of

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province in the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the List of cities in China ...

during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. He was arrested several times between February 1 and 9, 2020.

Personal life

Fang Bin was living in

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

in January 2020 when the

COVID-19 outbreak The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

hit China.

Journalism

Fang recorded his first video on January 25, 2020. His shots mostly show himself and the situation in different districts of Wuhan, and attracted a few thousand views. Videos were uploaded to YouTube to bypass the government's censorship on domestic platforms. While direct access to foreign platforms such as YouTube is blocked in China, they

may May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the third of seven months to have a length of 31 days. May is a month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore, May ...

remain accessible through

virtual private network A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. The be ...

First arrest

On February 1, 2020, Fang released a new video showing the piling up of corpses at the back of a minivan in front of a Wuhan hospital. The video was shared on Twitter by Chinese journalist Jennifer Zeng. Fang was arrested on the same day, warned and eventually released during the night.

Arrests of whistleblowers

In February 2020, Fang and two other citizen journalists and whistleblowers,

Chen Qiushi Chen Qiushi (born September 1985), also known as Steven Chen, is a Chinese lawyer, activist, and citizen journalist who covered the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests and the COVID-19 pandemic which included criticism of the government response. ...

and

Li Zehua Li Zehua (, born 1995) is a Chinese citizen journalist, rapper, and YouTuber. Li was born in Pingxiang, Jiangxi. After graduating from the Communication University of China, he joined China Central Television (CCTV) as a television presenter in ...

, were arrested and went missing in Wuhan. Chen, a lawyer who arrived in Wuhan on January 23, disappeared first on February 6; one week prior, he had uploaded a video criticising the Chinese government's manipulation of information which ended with the sentence "I am not afraid to die! You think I am afraid of you communist party?". Li, another citizen journalist, went missing in late February, but reappeared in April posting a neutral, patriotic video, in contrast to his previous tone. Two days before Chen's arrest, on February 4, the police came twice to Fang's apartment. He recorded the scene and refused to let them in without a warrant, worried that they had come in large numbers to arrest him (he counted at least four officers). Fang kept making videos from his apartment during the following days, criticising the government's propaganda and its choice to arrest Chen and

Li Wenliang Li Wenliang (; 12 October 1986 – 7 February 2020) was a Chinese ophthalmologist who warned his colleagues about early COVID-19 infections in Wuhan. On 30 December 2019, Wuhan CDC issued emergency warnings to local hospitals about a number ...

. On February 9, he released his last video: a 12-second clip showing a piece of paper with the sentence "all citizens resist, hand power back to the people" written on it. He has been missing ever since. In February 2022,

Radio Free Asia Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a United States government-funded private non-profit news service that broadcasts radio programs and publishes online news, information, and commentary for its audiences in Asia. The service, which provides editoriall ...

reported that Fang was possibly held at the Wuhan

Jiang'an District Jiang'an District () forms part of the urban core of and is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China. Jiang'an District is located on the Yangtze's left (northwestern) shore, and incl ...

Police Station.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fang, Bin Chinese journalists Citizen journalists Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on journalism Living people Missing person cases in China Year of birth missing (living people) 2020s missing person cases Businesspeople from Wuhan Chinese prisoners and detainees Chinese whistleblowers

Personal life

Journalism

First arrest

Arrests of whistleblowers

See also

References