making trouble and picking quarrels
I can not even imagine being imprisoned for “making trouble and picking quarrels” but that is where Chinese independent journalist Huang Xueqin (also known as Sophia Huang) finds herself now. She was arrested on this charge in the city of Guangzhou in the Guangdong province of China on October 17, 2019. She is facing a possible sentence of 5 to 10 years in prison.
Ms. Huang has covered the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and the #MeToo movement prior to that. The South China Morning Post reports that Ms. Huang had worked in state media prior to going public with her own experience with workplace harassment in 2017. Others came forward with their own experiences too, following her brave first steps.
She went on to conduct a survey of women journalists in mainland China about their experiences with with sexual harassment and even built an online platform to collect victims accounts of sexual harassment using the hashtag #WoYeShi.
She is 30 years old and was planning to return to Hong Kong to attend law school at Hong Kong University before her travel documents were taken by the Chinese government this past August. She is now in the Guangzhou Baiyun District Detention Center and is not permitted visitors.
Reporters Without Borders (based in France as Borders Sans Frontiers and with offices around the world) has called for the immediate release of Ms. Huang and describes her life and contributions briefly here. I am using the photograph of her from their web site here.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Ms. Huang was attending a peaceful protest in Hong Kong in June 2019 when she first noticed police were monitoring her. She also told the Wall Street Journal that after she posted a blog about her experience in Hong Kong, “the police paid late-night visits to her family in Guangzhou and requested that she stop going to the protests and writing about them.”
I am writing about this for two reasons. One, I would like to find a way to help Ms. Huang get out of prison and make her way to a safe place where she can continue to write about freedom and feminism and whatever she might like to share with the world. Secondly, I would like to better understand and share how troubling and numerous these human rights violations are in China.
What are your thoughts? Let me know in a response here.
David
References
October 29, 2019 – Reporters Without Borders – RSF calls for the release of a Chinese reporter who covered the Hong Kong protests
October 29, 2019 – Radio Free Asia – Rights Groups Call For Release of Chinese Journalist Who Reported From Hong Kong
October 25, 2019 – Shanghaiist – #MeToo activist who took part in Hong Kong protest detained in Guangzhou
October 24, 2019 – South China Morning Post – Police detain Chinese #MeToo activist Sophia Huang Xueqin on public order charge
October 24, 2019 – The Wall Street Journal – China Detains Women’s Rights Activist Who Joined a Hong Kong Protest
© David Geiger 2019
david geiger 
One Response to “making trouble and picking quarrels”
This is just the unfortunate reality. Many Chinese have knowingly or unknowingly accepted this – myself included probably – for a variety of reasons, one of which being the fact that brave souls often end up suffering. This feels sad, doesn’t it? To your first question, I’m afraid there is no good way to get her out of prison unless she gives in, and if she is even given the opportunity to give in. I don’t want to sound cold, but again, this just sounds all too familiar.
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