In protest at his arrest and indictment, Zhang started a prolonged hunger strike, his lawyers said. In response, the authorities forcibly fed her through a feeding tube and restrained her hands so that she could not remove it.
Zhang’s trial at the Shanghai Pudong People’s Court on Monday lasted less than three hours. The official charge for which she was convicted was “to start fights and cause trouble”, a vague and common accusation used against government critics. Prosecutors had initially recommended a sentence between four and five years.
Zhang attended the trial in a wheelchair, one of his lawyers, Zhang Ke Ke, wrote on Monday on WeChat, a messaging app. Mr. Zhang had written in a post a few days before that she had lost a significant amount of weight and was almost unrecognizable just a few weeks earlier.
Ms. Zhang barely spoke during the hearing, except to say that people’s speech should not be censored, wrote Zhang, who is not related to Ms. Zhang.
After the sentence was announced, Zhang’s mother, who had been escorted to court for trial by security officials, sobbed uncontrollably, said Ren Quanniu, another lawyer for Zhang.
Few others have been allowed to enter, as delicate hearings in China are often held behind closed doors. Before the trial, reporters and supporters of Zhang gathered near the court, but were removed by security officials. One of Zhang’s friends, Li Dawei, said that he and about 10 other people who tried to attend the hearing were taken to a nearby police station.
Chen Jiangang, a Chinese human rights lawyer, said the length of Zhang’s sentence shows that the government considers preserving its narrative of the outbreak fundamental to maintaining power.