New York, Sept. 25 -- Human Rights in China has released its latest weekly brief, illustrating China's tightening grip on dissent, surveillance, and digital control, which has drawn fresh scrutiny amid a series of developments in the country's worsening human rights climate.

At the centre of global concern is the case of Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer turned citizen journalist, who was sentenced to an additional four years in prison in Shanghai.

Zhang first came to international attention in 2020 when she documented the realities of Wuhan's COVID-19 lockdown, capturing overwhelmed hospitals and severe shortages at a time when state media offered only scripted narratives. Her independent reporting led to a four-year sentence for "picking qu...