Prominent #MeToo journalist and activist Sophia Huang Xueqin, 36, was convicted of “subversion against the state” by a Chinese court on Friday and sentenced to five years in prison, according to her supporters.
Huang, known for her groundbreaking reporting on sexual abuse victims in China, had also spoken out about the misogyny and sexism she experienced in state-run media newsrooms. Her trial was conducted behind closed doors at the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court in southern China.
The verdict has not yet been officially confirmed by Chinese judicial authorities.
Huang was detained alongside labor rights activist Wang Jianbing in 2021 at Guangzhou airport. Their supporters report that they were held in solitary confinement for months during their pre-trial detention, with the trial only commencing in September 2023.
According to a social media post on Friday by the “Free Huang Xueqin & Wang Jianbing” group, the charges against Huang stemmed from meetings she led in Guangzhou starting in late 2020. The court ruled that she had “incited participants’ dissatisfaction with Chinese state power under the pretext of discussing social issues.”
The supporters’ group also stated that Wang was sentenced on Friday to three years and six months in prison on the same charges.
When Huang was arrested at the airport, she was on her way to the UK to begin a master’s degree on a UK government-sponsored scholarship program.
The convictions “show just 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 BBC News, a CBS News partner, on Friday.
Amnesty International condemned the convictions as “malicious and totally groundless.”
BBC News reported that Chinese authorities initiated a crackdown on activists across various fields in 2021.
“#MeToo activism has empowered survivors of sexual violence worldwide, but in this case, the Chinese authorities have sought to do the exact opposite by stamping it out,” Brooks added.
