Brian McDonald
Prominent journalist and #MeToo activist Sophia Huang Xueqin, 36, was sentenced by a court in China of “subversion against the State” on Friday and sentenced to five years in prison, according to her supporters.
Huang reported groundbreaking stories about victims and survivors of sexual abuse in China and spoke about the misogyny and sexism she herself faced in state media newsrooms. Her trial was held behind closed doors at the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court in southern China.
The verdict was not immediately confirmed by Chinese judicial authorities.
Thomas Yau/South China Morning Post/Getty
Huang was detained alongside labor rights activist Wang Jianbing in 2021 at a Guangzhou airport. His supporters say they were kept in isolation for months during pre-trial detention and that the trial only began in September 2023.
According to a Friday’s social media posts by the group “Free Huang Xueqin & Wang Jianbing”, the charges against Huang concerned meetings she led in Guangzhou in late 2020, during which the court ruled that she had “incited participants’ dissatisfaction with Chinese state power under the pretext of discussing social issues.”
The group of supporters said Wang was also sentenced on Friday to three years and six months in prison on the same charges.
When she was arrested at the airport, Huang was on her way to start working towards a master’s degree in Britain under a scholarship program sponsored by the UK government.
The convictions “show how terrified the Chinese government is of the emerging wave of activists who dare to speak out to protect the rights of others,” Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s China director, told CBS News partner network BBC News on Sunday. Friday.
Amnesty International called the convictions “malicious and completely unfounded”.
Chinese authorities launched a crackdown on activists working in different areas in 2021, BBC News reported.
“#MeToo activism has empowered survivors of sexual violence around the world, but in this case, Chinese authorities sought to do exactly the opposite by cracking down on it,” Brooks said.
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