BY DAKE KANG
SHANGHAI (AP) — The first scientist to publish a sequence of
the COVID-19 virus in China staged a sit-in protest outside his lab after
authorities locked him out of the facility — a sign of the Beijing’s continuing
pressure on scientists conducting research on the coronavirus.
Zhang Yongzhen wrote in an online post Monday that he and
his team had been suddenly notified they were being evicted from their lab, the
latest in a series of setbacks, demotions and ousters since the virologist
published the sequence in January 2020 without state approval.
When Zhang tried to go to the lab over the weekend, guards
barred him from entering. In protest, he sat outside on flattened cardboard in
drizzling rain, pictures from the scene posted online show. News of the protest
spread widely on Chinese social media and Zhang told a colleague he slept
outside the lab — but it was not clear Tuesday if he remained there.
“I won’t leave, I won’t quit, I am
pursuing science and the truth!” he wrote in a post on Chinese social media
platform Weibo that was later deleted.
In an online statement, the
But Zhang wrote online that his team wasn’t offered an
alternative until after they were notified of their eviction, and that the lab
offered didn’t meet safety standards for conducting their research, leaving his
team in limbo.
Zhang’s latest difficulty reflects how
When reached by phone on Tuesday, Zhang said it was
“inconvenient” for him to speak, saying there were other people listening in.
In an email Monday to collaborator Edward Holmes seen by AP, Zhang confirmed he
was sleeping outside his lab after guards barred him from entering.
An AP reporter was blocked by a guard at an entrance to the
compound housing Zhang’s lab. A staff member at the National Health Commission,
Zhang’s ordeal started when he and his team decoded the
virus on Jan. 5, 2020, and wrote an internal notice warning Chinese authorities
of its potential to spread — but did not make the sequence public. The next
day, Zhang’s lab was ordered temporarily shut by
Around the time,
Foreign scientists soon learned that Zhang and other Chinese
scientists had deciphered the virus and called on
Sequencing a virus is key to the
development of test kits, disease control measures and vaccinations. The virus
eventually spread to every corner of the world, triggering a pandemic that
disrupted lives and commerce, prompted widespread lockdowns and killed millions
of people.
Zhang was later awarded prizes in recognition for his work.
But Zhang’s publication of the sequence also prompted
additional scrutiny of his lab, according to Holmes, Zhang’s collaborator and a
virologist at the
“Ever since he defied the authorities by releasing the genome sequence of the virus that causes COVID-19 there has been a campaign against him,” Holmes said. “He’s been broken by this process and I’m amazed he has been able to work at all.