22 September 2021

A prominent women’s rights activist and a civil society member have gone missing in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. It is being seen by some as yet another example of China’s clampdown on human rights.

Friends and family members of MeToo activist Huang Xueqin and labour rights campaigner Wang Jianbing fear that they have been detained by the police. Their friends said that they lost contact with the two activists on the afternoon of 19 September. [...]

“According to people familiar with the matter, Wang Jianbing may have been detained under investigation for incitement to subvert state power, mainly due to the daily gatherings of friends at his home,” Chinese rights group Weiquanwang said. The activists’ friends reiterated this. The charge of “inciting subversion of state authority” is often used against civil society members to suppress their voices.

Speculating that the clampdown on activists may intensify ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022, senior researcher Ramona Li [of China Human Rights Defenders] said: “Authorities have been going after any attempt to form associations, assemble peacefully, or to build communities of mutual support, apparently seeing them as threats to national security.”

Ms Huang [...] became a leading figure of the country’s MeToo movement in 2018 when she helped survivors of sexual harassment share their stories.

Mr Wang has earlier served as the director of Western Sunlight Foundation's rural education programme, where he extended his service to underdeveloped regions. He was involved in providing support for the welfare of the youth, disabled people and workers with health conditions caused by their work environment.