Huang Xueqin: Chinese #MeToo journalist sentenced to five years in prison, according to his supporters

Hong Kong
CNN
—

A prominent #MeToo journalist in China has been sentenced to five years in prison for subversion, his supporters say, as the ruling Communist Party steps up efforts to dismantle what remains of the country's civil society.

Huang Xueqin, an independent journalist, was convicted Friday by the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court of “inciting subversion of state power”, his supporters said.

Labor activist Wang Jianbin, another defendant in the case, was sentenced to three and a half years, according to his supporters, who shared a copy of the verdict against X.

Huang told the court she would appeal, her supporters said, although it was not immediately clear whether Wang would also appeal.

Huang, 36, and Wang, 40, have already spent nearly three years behind bars in China's opaque justice system.

They were arrested by authorities in the southern city of Guangzhou in September 2021 and were tried behind closed doors in September last year.

Huang, who worked as an investigative journalist for liberal-leaning media outlets in Guangzhou before becoming a freelance journalist, was instrumental in sparking the #MeToo movement in China.

In 2018, she contributed to the nation's first #MeToo case, using her social media influence to amplify the voice of a graduate student who accused her dissertation advisor of unwanted sexual advances.

She also spoke about her own experiences of sexual harassment as a young intern at a national news agency, where she claimed to have been groped and kissed by a high-ranking journalist and mentor.

To show the scale of this problem, she surveyed 416 female journalists in 2018 and found that 84% of them had experienced sexual harassment in the workplace.

“There are so few people being prosecuted because there are very few victims who are filing charges,” she told CNN in a 2018 interview. “For most victims, it's a shame.”

Huang and Wang were arrested the day before Huang was due to leave for the UK to begin his master's degree in gender-based violence and conflict at the University of Sussex.

In a statement released on Friday, Amnesty International highlighted that the conviction of the two men came one day before the thousandth day of their first arrest.

“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,” the rights group said. .

“These malicious and completely baseless condemnations show how terrified the Chinese government is of the emerging wave of activists who dare to speak out to protect the rights of others. »

China's courts are tightly controlled by the ruling Communist Party and have a conviction rate above 99.9%.

Authorities have not given any details about the charges against Huang and Wang, but supporters believe their arrests may be linked to weekly gatherings of friends held at Wang's apartment.

In the months following their detention, more than 70 friends and supporters of Huang and Wang were summoned by police for questioning, according to their supporters.

Some were forced to sign false testimonies against the two men, claiming they had organized political rallies to criticize the government, their supporters said.

Huang's close friend said those attending the rallies were a scattered group of friends who were concerned about public affairs — from feminism, LGBTQ and labor rights to environmental protection. In addition to sharing experiences and perspectives, they also played board games and sometimes went hiking together.

A close friend of Huang previously told CNN that the journalist suffered significant weight loss in detention and stopped menstruating for months. She suffered from malnutrition and persistent back pain, said the friend, who requested anonymity, fearing reprisals from authorities.

“It’s a community where everyone supports each other. But it has been disbanded since the detention. I don’t have any sense of belonging anymore,” the friend told CNN last year before the closed-door trial.

“The repression of the authorities has made us isolated atoms – it is difficult for everyone to come together again. The entire community is repressed and silenced.