A Chinese journalist who launched her country’s MeToo movement and was arrested the day before she was due to fly to Britain to study has been jailed for five years.

Sophia Huang Xueqin was sentenced by a court in Guangzhou on Friday. According to documents obtained by a group of activists campaigning for her release, she was found guilty of “inciting subversion of state power”.

Ms Huang and another activist, Wang Jianbing, were arrested in September 2021, on the eve of her flight to Britain to begin a master’s degree at Sussex University on a Chevening scholarship, which is funded by the UK government.

The journalist kicked off the MeToo movement in China by publicising the case of a graduate student who made allegations of sexual harassment against her PhD supervisor at one of China’s most prestigious universities.

As other women came forward to tell similar stories of inappropriate male behaviour, the movement was quickly snuffed out by Beijing’s censors, who saw it as a threat to the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s grip on social and political order.

Following a closed-doors trial on Friday, the court imposed the maximum jail sentence on Ms Huang, along with a fine equivalent to almost £11,000.

Mr Wang, a labour activist who was also prominent in the MeToo movement, was sentenced to three years and six months imprisonment.

Serving the public interest

As the Guangzhou People’s Intermediate Court gave its verdict on Friday, a heavy security presence formed around the building, with police questioning bystanders.

Human rights groups denounced the verdict as an injustice.

“Huang Xueqin was only serving the public interest by shedding light on social issues and should never have been detained, not to mention tortured or sentenced to such a heavy prison term,” Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.

The group urged the international community to put pressure on the Chinese government to release her and another 118 journalists being detained in China.

Sarah Brooks, the China director of Amnesty International, said: “These malicious and totally groundless convictions show just how terrified the Chinese government is of the emerging wave of activists who dare to speak out to protect the rights of others.”

Chinese foreign spokesperson Lin Jian said that China was a country based on the rule of law and anyone who broke the law would be punished.

“China firmly opposes any country or organisation challenging China’s judicial sovereignty,” he said.