Chinese police have released without charge a German journalist’s assistant after nine months of detention but her lawyer has now been detained, highlighting Beijing’s continued sensitivity towards the case.
Zhang Miao was apprehended by police last year on her way to attend a poetry reading in Beijing by artists sympathetic to last year’s Hong Kong protests, after accompanying a correspondent for Die Zeit on a trip to the territory to cover the student-led demonstrations.
Die Zeit published an article in January — in German and English — detailing the detention as well as its correspondent Angela Kockritz’s decision to leave China after police interrogations. The article, accompanied by the social media hashtag “#freemiao”, attracted global attention.