Fang Bin () is a Chinese businessman, citizen journalist 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

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and

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to broadcast images of

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the 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 ninth-most populous Chinese city an ...

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 identi ...

. 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 ...

in January 2020 when the COVID-19 outbreak 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 remain accessible through virtual private networks.

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 and Li Zehua, 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 reported that Fang was possibly held at the Wuhan Jiang'an District 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