In protest of her arrest and the charges, Ms. Zhang went on a long hunger strike, her lawyers said. In response, officers forcibly fed her through a feeding tube and restrained her hand so that she could not pull it.
Mr Zhang’s trial, at Shanghai Pudong People’s Court on Monday, lasted less than three hours. A vague, common charge against government critics was the official accusation of “choosing to quarrel and inciting trouble.” The plaintiff initially recommended a sentence of four to five years.
Ms. Zhang appeared for the trial in a wheelchair, one of her lawyers, Zhang Ke, wrote on a messaging app on WeChat on Monday. Mr. Zhang wrote in a post a few days ago that she had lost a significant amount of weight and that she was almost unaware just a few weeks ago.
During the hearing, Ms. Mr. Zhang rarely spoke, except that people’s speech should not be censored, Mr. Zhang wrote, which is not related to Ms. Zhang.
After the sentence was announced, Mr. Zhang’s mother, who was taken to court by security officials, was uncontrollably suppressed, said Zhang’s other lawyer, Ren Quanyu.
Sensitive hearings in China are often held behind closed doors, as many were allowed. Ahead of the trial, journalists and Ku Zhang’s supporters gathered near the courthouse but were pushed away by security officials. Ms Zhang’s friends, Li Davei, said she and about 10 others who tried to attend the hearing were brought to a nearby police station.
Chen Jiangeng, a Chinese human rights lawyer, said the length of Ms. Zhang’s sentence showed that the government considered the story of her outrage to be fundamental to seizing power.
