"A Chinese Journalist Gave #MeToo Victims a Voice. Now She’s on Trial" 25 September 2023

After two years in detention, a Chinese journalist who spoke up against sexual harassment stood trial on subversion charges on Friday along with a labor rights activist...

Huang Xueqin, an independent journalist who was once a prominent voice in China’s #MeToo movement, and her friend Wang Jianbing, the activist, were taken away by the police in September 2021 and later charged with inciting subversion of state power. Their trial was held at the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court in southern China...

In Ms. Huang and Mr. Wang’s cases, the authorities questioned dozens of their friends in the months after their detentions and pressured them to sign testimonies against the two, according to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, an advocacy group that is in close contact with many activists...

Ms. Huang emerged as an important activist in China’s burgeoning #MeToo movement in early 2018, when she created a social media platform for reporting sexual harassment...Mr. Wang worked to promote the rights of people with disabilities as well as workers. He was also a #MeToo advocate who tried to help victims of harassment speak out.

The police detained Ms. Huang and Mr. Wang at his home the day before her planned departure from China to begin a master’s program on gender studies in Britain, according to Chinese Human Rights Defenders. The two were held for 47 days without access to lawyers before formal arrest notices were shared with their friends, the rights group said...

A United Nations working group on arbitrary detentions has raised concerns about the lengthy detention of Mr. Wang...

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Amnesty International said Ms. Huang was believed to have been subjected to mistreatment in detention and that her health had deteriorated drastically...

No legal documents about the case have been made public. Reached by telephone this week, an employee at Guangzhou’s Intermediate People’s Court said she had no information to provide...