GUANGZHOU, China — Prominent Chinese #MeToo activist Huang Xueqin was convicted of subversion and sentenced to five years in prison by a southern Chinese court on Friday, according to a group campaigning for her release and a copy of the sentence.
Huang, a 35-year-old independent journalist, plans to appeal the sentence, his supporters said. Huang’s co-trial partner, labor activist Wang Jianbing, 40, was sentenced to three years and six months in prison. It was not immediately clear whether he would appeal.
A spokesman for a group campaigning to free Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing, who asked not to be named due to safety concerns, said the sentence was “longer than we expected.”
“We believe that such severe punishment should not have been given and is completely unnecessary. We therefore support Huang’s wish to appeal.”
The two men, who had been detained by Chinese authorities since September 2021, went on trial last year. During the closed-door trial, they denied any wrongdoing, supporters said.
The sedition charges against the pair were based on their frequent meetings that brought together young Chinese people to discuss social issues.
“Their hard work and dedication to labour, women’s rights and wider civil society will not be negated by this unjust trial, nor will society forget their contributions. On the contrary, as oppression continues and injustice grows, activists like them will continue to grow,” the campaign group, made up of mainly overseas-based activists, said in a statement ahead of the verdict.
Tight security was around the Guangzhou Municipal People’s Intermediate Court on Friday morning, with police officers questioning passersby.
“Inciting subversion of state power” is a charge often used by the Chinese government against dissidents and carries a prison sentence of up to five years, but longer penalties may be imposed if the suspect is deemed a ringleader or guilty of a more serious crime.
According to activist groups, Huang had been scheduled to travel to the UK on September 19, 2021, the day before his arrest, to start a master’s degree at the University of Sussex on a British government scholarship.
Huang, who covered China’s #MeToo scandals and the 2019 Hong Kong anti-government protests, was detained by Chinese police for three months in late 2019.
Supporters have previously said the two activists had been held in solitary confinement for several months. Police in Guangzhou did not respond to a faxed request for comment.
