Chinese national guilty in harass case

Berklee student was targeted for democracy poster

A federal jury in Boston on Thursday convicted a Chinese national of cyberstalking and threatening a fellow Berklee College of Music student in 2022 who also hails from China and who had angered the defendant by posting a flier near campus calling for freedom and democracy in their home country, officials said.

Jurors in US District Court in Boston found Xiaolei Wu, 26, guilty of cyberstalking and interstate transmissions of threatening communications after a four-day trial, said Acting US Attorney Joshua S. Levy’s office in a statement.

Wu’s lawyers didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“No one in this country should ever be subjected to threats of violence or a cyberstalking harassment campaign for expressing their political views,” Levy said in the statement. “Mr. Wu now stands as a convicted felon for his illegal efforts to suppress speech by a fellow Berklee School of Music student who was critical of the government of China. This type of conduct will never be tolerated.”

An indictment filed in the case said the victim, a lawful permanent US resident who has family in China, had posted a flier on Oct. 22, 2022, on a window “at or near” the Berklee campus that said “We Want Freedom. We Want Food On Our Tables. We Want To Breathe. We Want Art. We Want Democracy. We Want To Love. Stand With Chinese People.”

Later that night, Wu posted a message directed at the student on a WeChat online message forum with over 300 members including the victim, according to the indictment.

“[D]on’t you [expletive] post reactionary posters,” Wu wrote, according to an English translation of the messages included in the indictment. “Post more, I will chop your ... hand[s] off.”

Wu also threatened the student with being “killed by Public Security” in China, according to the indictment.

At 1:54 a.m. the following morning, the indictment said, Wu posted another threatening message to the WeChat thread, this time writing “I already called the tipoff line in the country, the public security agency will go greet your family.”

Wu also sent the victim a threatening email on Oct. 24, 2022, at 2:39 a.m., the indictment said.

“I heard you are going back to the country,” Wu wrote, according to the translation in the indictment. “I think you should just cancel your flight ticket. I am afraid the customs may seize you, put all your family members through political review.”

Wu wrote that if the victim went to “Chinatown, Quincy” to post fliers, they “could be beaten to death by people of the chamber of commerce there, and by then no one would rescue you even if 911 was dialed. Those who follow you to kick up a fuss are all supporters of Hong Kong independence and Taiwan [independence] right? Then as a Chinese growing up in Mainland China, you are rather pathetic.”

Berklee didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

At the time of Wu’s arrest in late 2022, the school had said that his enrollment was suspended and that the charges were “troubling.”

“What Xiaolei Wu did in attempting to silence and intimidate an activist who expressed dissension with the ruling Communist Party of China is not only criminal, but completely against our country’s democratic values,” said Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston division in a statement.