A Chinese citizen journalist who was missing for almost two months after posting videos from Wuhan during the coronavirus outbreak has re-appeared, claiming that he was detained by police and forcibly quarantined.

Li Zehua was one of three Chinese journalists who had been reporting from the front lines in Wuhan during some of the worst weeks of the epidemic. He was last seen on 26 February after posting a video in which he was chased by a white SUV and an hours-long live-stream that ended when several agents entered his apartment.

In a video posted on YouTube, Weibo and Twitter Li said on 26 February the white SUV had pulled out in front of him while he was driving in the Wuchang district in Wuhan and the people in it yelled for him to stop. Li panicked and drove off with the car in pursuit, recording the video that he posted online later that day.

我是李泽华Kcriss，这是2月26日至今关于我的一些情况。I'm Kcriss, here is something about me si... https://t.co/ETjY7QaacY via @YouTube — Kcriss Li (@KcrissLi) April 22, 2020

After making it back to his apartment, he saw uniformed police and staff in protective suits knocking on the doors of his neighbours. Li turned the lights off and sat quietly in front of his computer for hours, waiting. Three hours later, a knock came.

At least three men entered his apartment, identifying themselves as public security. Li then went with them to a local police station where he was told he was being investigated on charges of disrupting public order.

Police later said they would not charge him but because he had visited “sensitive epidemic areas” he would need to undergo quarantine.

Li, who had to give his devices over to a friend, spent the next month in quarantine in Wuhan and then in his hometown in a different province. He was served three meals a day, monitored by security guards and able to watch state broadcaster CCTV’s evening newscast.

“Throughout the whole time, the police acted civilly and legally, making sure I had rest and food. They really cared about me,” he said. Li said he was released on 28 March and has been spending time with his family. He wished those who suffered during the epidemic a fast recovery. “May God bless China and the people of the world unite.”

Li’s tone and comments, neutral and patriotic, were markedly different from his previous videos. Li, who had worked for the state-broadcaster CCTV, travelled to Wuhan to report on the crisis after another citizen journalist and activist Chen Qiushi disappeared.

In his videos, he reported on a local neighbourhood committee’s efforts to cover up new infections and interviewed sick residents. He visited a crematorium where a worker said people were being paid more to transport bodies.

At the time Li said: “I don’t want to remain silent, or shut my eyes and ears. It’s not that I can’t have a nice life, with a wife and kids. I can. I’m doing this because I hope more young people can, like me, stand up.”

Yet, in closing his video on Wednesday, Li quoted a line from a Confucian text about staying true to one’s beliefs. “The human heart is unpredictable, restless. Its affinity to what is right is small. Be discriminating, be uniform so that you may hold fast,” he said.

Additional reporting by Lillian Yang