Guarantee Sophia Huang Xueqin’s freedom from arbitrary restrictions
As journalist and prominent #MeToo activist Sophia Huang Xueqin approaches the end of her unjust five-year prison sentence, we, the undersigned civil society organisations, call on the Chinese authorities to ensure her immediate release and guarantee that, once released, she can carry out her journalism and human rights work without surveillance, harassment, retaliation or other restrictions.
Sophia Huang Xueqin is widely recognised for her work on human rights and commitment to press freedom. She is a journalist and one of the most prominent figures associated with China’s #MeToo movement. For years, she reported on and advocated for gender equality and supported survivors of sexual harassment and gender-based violence.
In September 2021, Sophia Huang Xueqin was preparing to start graduate studies in the United Kingdom. However, she and a friend, human and labour rights activist Wang Jianbing, were arrested in Guangzhou, China on 19 September, and detained incommunicado for more than five months. While in detention, both Sophia Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing were reportedly subjected to ill-treatment, with negative impacts on their health.
During their trial in September 2023, the prosecution focused on the activists’ role in co-organising weekly gatherings with fellow activists, as well as their participation in an online course on non-violence and online posts they had published or shared on issues deemed ‘sensitive’ by the Chinese government.
Their convictions in June 2024 for ‘inciting subversion of state power’ were based solely on the permissible exercise of their human rights, including the rights to freedom of the press and expression as well as association. Their case is emblematic of the Chinese government’s ongoing crackdown on journalists, human rights defenders, feminist activists, and civil society voices calling for social justice and respect for human rights.
Wang Jianbing, who was sentenced to three and a half years, was released in March 2025.
While Sophia Huang Xueqin is expected to be released on 18 September, we are concerned that she will face restrictions after leaving prison. She was subject to a ‘supplemental sentence’ of four years’ deprivation of political rights, a punishment that is routinely imposed on human rights defenders and journalists to restrict their ability to speak, publish, and organise long after their prison terms end. The legal provisions permitting this punishment are incompatible with international human rights standards, not to mention the fact that no one should be punished simply for exercising their human rights.
We call on the Chinese authorities to:
- Ensure Sophia Huang Xueqin is released immediately and is not subjected to any further arbitrary detention and allowed to move freely;
- Guarantee her rights to freedom of expression, press, association and peaceful assembly, alongside her right to participate in public life, including her ability to communicate freely with family, friends, supporters, and civil society groups;
- Ensure she is not subjected to surveillance, harassment, intimidation, retaliation or restrictions on her movement and communications; and
- Amend domestic laws, notably the Criminal Law, to ensure their compliance with international law and standards, and prevent the misuse of legal provisions to restrict the rights of human rights defenders and others.
Sophia Huang Xueqin’s journalism and advocacy have inspired countless people both inside and outside China. Sophia Huang Xueqin should never have been imprisoned for her human rights and journalism work. As she approaches the end of her sentence, she deserves not only release, but freedom from any and all undue restrictions on her rights.
Signatory organizations:
- Alliance for Citizens Rights
- Amnesty International
- ARTICLE 19
- Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
- Bay Area Friends of Tibet
- Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM)
- Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association (CamboJA)
- Center for Uyghur Studies (CUS)
- China Deviants
- CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
- Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
- Dandelion Solidarity
- European Values Center for Security Policy (EVC)
- Fortify Rights
- Freedom House
- Front Line Defenders
- Georgetown Center for Asian Law
- Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities
- GreatFire
- Grupo de Apoio ao Tibete-Portugal
- Hong Kong Committee in Norway
- Hong Kong Labour Rights Monitor
- Hong Kong Media Overseas
- Hong Kong Watch
- Hongkonger in Deutschland e.V. 香港人在德國協會
- Hongkongers in Britain (HKB)
- Hongkongers in Lothians
- Human Rights Foundation (HRF)
- Human Rights in China (HRIC)
- Human Rights Watch
- Humanitarian China
- Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC)
- Index on Censorship
- International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
- International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
- International Tibet Network
- International Women’s Media Foundation
- Legal Initiatives for Vietnam (LIV)
- Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD)
- No Business With Genocide
- Northern California Hong Kong Club
- PEN America
- PEN Nederland
- PEN Sweden
- Reading UK Stands with HK
- Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
- Safeguard Defenders (SD)
- Santa Barbara Friends of Tibet
- Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center
- Students for a free Tibet -India
- Students for A Free Tibet Oslo
- Students For a Free Tibet, Japan
- Swedish Tibet Committee
- Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR)
- The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) Foundation
- The Rights Practice
- Tibet Initiative Deutschland e.V.
- Viet Tan
- World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
- World Uyghur Congress (WUC)
