In the early days of 2020, as science looked for answers to a mysterious viral outbreak in central China, a prominent Chinese virologist stepped forward to share critical data with the world.
Zhang Yongzhen's disclosure of the genome of the virus that causes Covid-19 was a crucial step in the race to combat the pandemic, helping researchers globally to identify the pathogen and create vaccines to counter it.
He was lauded for his integrity by the scientific community, but in the years since, people who know Zhang say he has faced a series of unprecedented roadblocks in his career in China – with yet another barrier placed in front of his research over the past week.
On Sunday and Monday, Zhang, 59, slept overnight in protest outside his lab at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center after administrators closed the facility abruptly for renovations, according to accounts posted on his Weibo social media page.
A post on his page early Wednesday said a "tentative agreement" had been reached for Zhang's team to resume their scientific work at the lab, some of which is related to tracing the origins of Covid-19.
The ordeal is just the latest hindrance to Zhang's research since 2020, according to a colleague who has been in contact with the Chinese scientist in recent years.
An account by Zhang's research students posted online also laid out a litany of challenges faced by the scientist since the formal transfer of his official employment to the Shanghai center in 2020, when his 19-year tenure at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention also ended.
Their account, reposted on Zhang's Weibo page and seen by CNN, has since been deleted. It alleges the Shanghai center, which is affiliated with the city's Fudan University, failed to formally recognize Zhang's employment, leaving him without social security and medical benefits, and that it prematurely terminated a five-year cooperation agreement with the scientist.
"That a top scientist in his field, a person who has made contributions to the country and mankind should have fallen to this point – is really sad and chilling," the post read.
In a statement Monday, the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center said it had closed some labs for renovation due to safety concerns and claimed it had provided additional office and experimental spaces for Zhang and his team.
The "institute always respects … and supports scientific researchers and students in carrying out normal research work," the statement said.
Images posted on social media this week (see above) appeared to show Zhang wrapped in blankets and sleeping on the doorstep of the lab building as security guards hovered over him.
Reached briefly by phone on Monday, Zhang told CNN the center's explanation that the lab needed renovation and there was ample notification of the move was "nonsense."
More than a dozen students' research had been impacted by the lab closure, he said, adding it was "inconvenient" to say more at that time.
In his post Wednesday, Zhang said his team would "discuss with the (center) the future relocation plan of the laboratory, the guarantee of normal life and scientific research work for students during the transition period," and work to resolve issues related to his own agreements with the center. CNN was unable to independently confirm his post.
The earlier post by Zhang's students said the two days originally allocated by the center for them to move their scientific work was insufficient. Their lab had been renovated as recently as 2020 and a second lab hadn't been in use since the pandemic, they added.
Neither Zhang nor the online post detailing the circumstances leading to his protest connected the lab closure to his sharing of the coronavirus genome sequence in 2020.
Multiple calls from CNN to the public relations department of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center went unanswered on Tuesday.
Keep reading about Zhang's challenges here.
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