Chinese journalist who promoted #MeToo movement sentenced to 5 years in prison

BEIJING (AP) — Supporters say a Chinese journalist who championed women's rights as part of the country's nascent #MeToo movement has been sentenced to five years in prison for inciting to overthrow state authority, almost three years later. she and an activist were arrested.

The verdict released to The Associated Press said Huang Xueqin would also face a fine of 100,000 yuan ($14,000), underscoring the ruling Communist Party's intolerance of any activism beyond its control in a system whose upper echelons are dominated by men.

China's #MeToo movement flourished briefly before being stifled by the government. China often silences the activists by keeping them incommunicado for a long period of time and then sentencing them to prison.

Huang's release date was set for September 18, 2026, which explains his earlier detention. Co-defendant Wang Jianbing was sentenced to three years and six months on the same charge. Wang is best known for his labor rights work, but he has also helped women report sexual harassment.

Huang and Wang's cases appear to have become closely linked as part of the latest sweeping crackdown on rights defenders, a trend that predates the #MeToo movement and includes earlier incidents such as the 2015 detentions of women distributing brochures against sexual harassment in public. transportation.

Working as a freelance journalist, Huang helped spark China's first #MeToo case in 2018 when she went public with sexual harassment allegations made by a graduate student against her Ph.D. supervisor at one of the most prestigious universities in China.

Friends say Huang and Wang disappeared on September 19, 2021, a day before Huang flew to the United Kingdom to begin a master's program in gender-based violence and conflict at the University of Sussex. They were tried in September 2023.

The International Foundation for Women in Media earlier awarded Huang its Wallis Annenberg Justice for Women Journalists Award.

Supporters of Huang and Wang created a GitHub web page to post updates on the cases and share their thoughts. China is regularly ranked by watchdog groups among the countries with the most imprisoned journalists.

Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International's China director, issued a statement condemning Huang's conviction, calling it an attack on women's rights advocacy in the People's Republic of China, which has long championed the concept that ” women support half the sky”, but whose institutions remain dominated by men.

“These convictions will prolong their deeply unjust detention and have a further chilling effect on human rights and social defense in a country where activists face increasing state repression,” Brooks said in a sent statement. by e-mail.

“In reality, they didn’t commit any real crime. Instead, the Chinese government has fabricated excuses to view their work as a threat and to target them in order to educate itself and others about social justice issues such as women's dignity and workers' rights. , Brooks said.