- The first scientist in China to publish the sequence of the new coronavirus staged a sit-in protest outside his lab after being locked out by authorities.
- Zhang Yongzhen and his team were reportedly given an eviction notice from the laboratory.
- The Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center said the institute’s closure was for safety reasons and provided an alternative space.
The first scientist in China to publish a set of sequences for the new coronavirus staged a sit-in protest outside the lab conducting coronavirus research after being locked out of the facility by authorities. This is a sign of the Chinese government’s continued pressure on scientists.
Zhang Yongzhen wrote in an online post on Monday that he and his team were suddenly notified that they would be ordered to leave the lab. This is the latest in a series of setbacks, demotions and expulsions since the virologist published a sequence without state approval in January 2020.
When Zhang tried to go to the lab over the weekend, security guards barred him from entering. During the protest, he was seen sitting outside on a flat piece of cardboard in the drizzling rain, photos from the scene posted online showed. News of the protests spread widely on Chinese social media, and Zhang told his colleagues he had been sleeping outside the lab, but it was not clear Tuesday whether he remained in the lab.
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“I will not leave, I will not quit, I will pursue science and truth!” he wrote in a post on Chinese social media platform Weibo that was later deleted.
Virologist Zhang Yongzhen gives a lecture in Shanghai, China, December 13, 2020. Zhang, the first scientist in China to publish a sequence of the new coronavirus, had staged a sit-in protest after authorities locked him out of his lab. Zhang wrote in an online post on April 29, 2024, that he and his team were suddenly notified that they would be evicted from the lab, the first time since he first published a series of papers in 2024. Early January was the latest in a series of setbacks, demotions and expulsions. (AP Photo/Kang Dak)
The Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center said in an online statement that Zhang’s laboratory was undergoing renovations and was closed for “safety reasons.” It added that it provided Zhang’s team with an alternative experimental space.
However, Zhang said online that his team was not presented with an alternative until they were notified of the eviction, that the proposed lab did not meet safety standards to conduct research, and that the team was left at a loss. wrote.
Zhang’s recent difficulties reflect how China has tried to manage information related to the virus. An Associated Press investigation found that the government froze meaningful domestic and international efforts to track the virus from the first weeks of the outbreak. This pattern continues to this day, with labs closed, research collaborations scuttled, foreign scientists expelled, and Chinese researchers banned from leaving the country.
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Reached by phone on Tuesday, Zhang said it was “inconvenient” to speak because others were listening. In an email to co-researcher Edward Holmes on Monday seen by The Associated Press, Zhang admitted that he had been sleeping outside the lab after security guards barred him from entering. Prevent.
An Associated Press reporter was stopped by security guards at the entrance to the compound that houses Zhang’s lab. An official at China’s top health authority, the National Health Commission, said by phone that the commission was not the primary department and referred questions to the Shanghai government. The Shanghai government did not respond to requests for comment.
Zhang’s ordeal began on January 5, 2020, when he and his team decoded the virus and wrote an internal notice warning Chinese authorities of the potential spread, but the sequence was never made public. There wasn’t. The next day, Zhang’s lab was ordered temporarily shut down by top Chinese health officials, and Zhang came under pressure from Chinese authorities.
Around that time, China reported that dozens of people were being treated for respiratory illnesses in central Wuhan. Possible cases of the same illness were also reported in Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan in recent travelers who had visited the city.
Foreign scientists soon learned that Zhang and other Chinese scientists had decoded the virus and asked him to publish it. Zhang published the coronavirus sequence on January 11, 2020, even though he did not have government permission.
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Sequencing the virus is key to developing test kits, disease control, and vaccinations. The virus eventually spread to every corner of the world, sparking a pandemic that disrupted life and commerce, prompted widespread lockdowns, and killed millions of people.
Zhang was later awarded an award for his accomplishments.
But Zhang’s collaborator Holmes, a virologist at the University of Sydney, said the release of Zhang’s sequence also prompted further scrutiny of his lab. Zhang was removed from his post at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and banned from collaborating with some of his former partners, hampering his research.
“The campaign against him has been ongoing ever since he defied authorities by publishing the genome sequence of the virus that causes COVID-19,” Holmes said. “He had his heart broken during this process, but I was amazed that he was still able to work.”
