The United States on Monday condemned the prison sentences imposed in China on Huang Xueqinwomen’s rights activist, Wang Jianbinga labor rights activist, and urged Beijing to immediately release both.
The sentences demonstrate the “China’s continued efforts to intimidate and silence civil society”US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
Journalist Huang Xueqin, who gave voice to women victims of sexual harassment in China, was sentenced last Friday by the Canton Intermediate Court to five years in prison for the crime of “incite subversion of state power.”
Meanwhile, the activist Wang Jianbing He was sentenced to three years and six months for the same charge, usually used against Chinese human rights activists, his supporters announced on the social network X.
Last year, several NGOs denounced that both had been “judged without guarantees” and asked the Chinese Government to release them “immediately.”
The informant, who has been detained for 999 days, was also deprived of her political rights for four years, meaning she would be released from prison in September 2026.
Huang, born in 1988, was instrumental in launching #MeToo in China in January 2018, collecting testimony from victims of sexual assault.
The independent reporter also covered topics related to corruption and the pollution industrial. In 2019, Huang posted online about her experience during the anti-government protests that hit Hong Kong in 2020, after which Guangzhou authorities detained her for at least three months, according to the NGO.
The human rights NGO CHRD (Chinese Human Rights Defenders) denounced last year that the treatment of Huang and Wang at the hands of the police was “riddled with violations of Chinese law and procedural justice.” .
“It is the Chinese government that should be prosecuted for illegally imprisoning its own citizens simply for the peaceful exercise of their human rights,” Renee Xia, director of the CHRD, said at the time.
According to this entity, Wang Jianbingborn in 1980, was held incommunicado during the first months of his detention, and the authorities refused to reveal any information about his whereabouts or detention to his family.
Meanwhile, Huang was not allowed to see a lawyer of her choice and was subjected to prolonged and repeated interrogations, the same source reports.
The NGO claims that Huang was prosecuted for her work as an independent journalist and for uncovering human rights abuses in China.
It also points out that Wang – an activist known for his support of people with disabilities and workers who developed illnesses due to poor working conditions – frequently participated in informal meetings with friends, in which Huang would also have participated, but that these had no structure. explicit or political intention.
(With information from Reuters and EFE)
