The convictions are the latest blow against civil society in China, where budding social movements are crushed before they have a chance to flourish.
The crime of “subversion of state power” is widely seen by human rights groups as a tool for suppressing dissent in China, a catchall term that can be used against perceived critics of the state. Under Xi Jinping’s leadership, the Chinese Communist Party has become increasingly intolerant of organized groups that it deems question its authority, from those promoting LGBTQ+ awareness to proponents of greater rights for women and people with disabilities.
Security was tight ahead of the verdict, and reporters were not allowed into the court. Calls and a fax sent to the court went unanswered, and a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said that anyone who broke the law in China would be punished.
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“China firmly opposes any country or organization challenging China’s judicial sovereignty,” Lin Jian said at the foreign ministry’s regular press briefing.
Supporters said both denied wrongdoing, and that Huang plans to appeal against the verdict. “Everything I do is not to incite subversion of state power but to hope that social conditions can be improved, and the country can become better,” Huang said at the end of her trial last September.
Who are Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing?
Huang, 35, is an independent journalist who played a key role in launching China’s #MeToo movement in 2018, when she wrote about her experience with sexual harassment and encouraged others to come forward. She conducted a survey of female journalists and found that more than 80 percent of the 255 who responded had also been sexually harassed. Huang later helped a graduate student go public against with accusations against her PhD supervisor. She had been arrested once before after participating in and writing about the huge anti-government protests in Hong Kong in 2019.
Wang, 40, is a friend of Huang’s and was also a prominent supporter of the #MeToo movement in China. Supporters refer to them as “xuebing” — an amalgamation of their given names.
Wang was primarily known for his labor activism and work defending people with disabilities. He has worked for years to empower people living with disabilities and advocates for the rights of workers with occupational diseases.
Ahead of their arrests, the two had gathered friends and acquaintances together to talk about issues frowned upon by Chinese censors — like being LGBTQ, working in the nonprofit sector and mental health.
What was the government’s case against them?
Huang and Wang were detained in September 2021, and formally arrested and charged a month later. The two were held for 47 days without access to lawyers, according to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, and were then required to use attorneys appointed by the court.
Chinese authorities accused Huang and Wang of public writing and private activism that incited the “overthrow of the socialist system by spreading rumors and slander.” Prosecutors cast Huang as a leading figure in unnamed “overseas organizations” and said she supported a “nonviolent movement” that challenged state authority.
Wang was accused of joining online groups including the “June 4 Massacre Memorial Museum,” which seeks to commemorate the bloody military crackdown on student-led protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. The pair’s private gatherings were alleged to have “incited participants’ dissatisfaction with China’s state power.”
Friends say the charges against the pair have been a misrepresentation and fabrication of what the two were trying to achieve in their advocacy.
One friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions, said the indictment exaggerated certain actions. For example, Wang was accused of joining organizations he had simply “liked” on Facebook.
“Anyone can like a public group, but they claimed his actions had the intent to incite subversion of state power,” the person said. “If you are involved in organizing and nurturing potential social networks that are critical of the government, then you become a target for suppression.”
Supporters say that Huang’s health in particular has deteriorated while in custody. Human rights groups including Amnesty International said Huang’s sleep has often been disrupted by interrogations in the middle of the night, and that she has lost a significant amount of weight.
What do the sentences say about civil society in China?
Beijing has moved beyond quashing figures long deemed problematic, like human rights lawyers and pro-democracy activists, to those advocating for causes that on the surface would seem less threatening to state power.
The case of Huang and Wang show how China’s powerful security apparatus is policing a broad range of socially active people, advocates for greater freedoms say, and interfering even in their private lives. It has been part of a growing crackdown against religious freedom, artists, journalists, environmental activists and other groups.
The convictions show the Chinese leader’s “unstinting hostility toward any kind of peaceful activism and community building,” said Yaqiu Wang, research director for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan at Freedom House, a Washington think tank that monitors the health of democracies.
“The ultimate goal of sham prosecutions as such is to decimate any remaining civil society space, so Chinese people only exist as isolated individuals that have no agency, no thinking of their own and no power to resist state control,” Wang said.
The feminism embodied by Huang is also something Beijing has tried to quash in recent years, including by persecuting other feminist activists, censoring feminist content online and shutting down feminist groups.
“Feminism itself will continue to be viewed as subversive because one of its core demands is that women be free to control their own bodies and lives,” said Leta Hong Fincher, author of “Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China.”
Given Huang was one of the most prominent activists in kick-starting China’s #MeToo campaign, “a harsh verdict seems likely to be designed as a warning to other activists,” she added.
What has the reaction been?
The case was censored in China so there has been no public reaction there. Ahead of the verdict, supporters tried to post information on the trial and the verdict on Douban, a Chinese discussion forum, and the messaging app WeChat, but the posts were blocked once published.
Human rights groups decried the verdicts as unjust.
“In reality, they have committed no actual crime,” said Amnesty International’s China director, Sarah Brooks. “Instead, the Chinese government has fabricated excuses to deem their work a threat.”
Reporters Without Borders noted in a statement that Huang was serving the public interest in her role as a journalist, and has called on the international community to pressure Chinese authorities to secure her release and that of 118 journalists and press freedom defenders detained in China.
Christian Shepherd and Pei-Lin Wu contributed to this report.
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