China #MeToo journalist sentenced to five years in prison, supporters say

A leading #MeToo journalist in China has been sentenced to five years in prison on subversion charges, according to supporters, as the ruling Communist Party ramps up its effort to dismantle what remains of the country’s civil society. Huang Xueqin, an independent journalist, was found guilty by the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court Friday for “inciting subversion of state power,” supporters said.

Labor activist Wang Jianbin, another defendant in the case, was sentenced to three and a half years, according to supporters, who shared a copy of the verdict on X. Huang told the court she would appeal, the supporters said, though it was not immediately clear if Wang would also appeal. Huang, 36, and Wang, 40, have already spent nearly three years behind bars within China’s opaque judicial system.

They were detained by authorities in the southern city of Guangzhou in September 2021 and stood trial behind closed doors in September last year.

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