UK urged to step in to free Chinese writer
Foreign Office asked to stand up for feminist who vanished after winning university place in Britain
MORE than 100 scholars from around the world have called on the Government to pressure Beijing to release a journalist who went missing in China before she could take up her university place in the UK.
A letter signed by recipients of a Chevening scholarship called on ministers to “publicly support detained Chinese feminist journalist Huang Xueqin” and “take a stance and act positively on this case”.
The 33-year-old disappeared from a friend’s house in Guangzhou on Sept 19, the day before she was due to fly to Hong Kong and onwards to London to complete a master’s degree at the University of Sussex.
She was the 2021-22 Chinese winner of the Chevening scholarship which brings outstanding individuals from around the world to study in the UK. It is partly funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Best known for campaigning on #Metoo issues and helping women report cases of sexual harassment, Ms Huang also wrote about anti-government protests in Hong Kong.
She was jailed for three months in 2019 for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.
Her friend, activist Wang Jianbing, who was due to accompany her to the airport, has also vanished.
“I consider that there is a special responsibility for the UK government to speak out on behalf of Huang because she was a part of the Chevening programme which is in turn under the FCDO. But instead the UK government has been silent,” said one of the signatories who asked to remain anonymous.
The FCDO and Chevening did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but in September a spokesman said that the Foreign Office was “urgently” looking into Ms Huang’s disappearance.
China has long restricted activists and dissidents from travelling abroad, over concerns that they may be even more critical overseas or apply for asylum, which would be embarrassing for Beijing.
The case comes after a global outcry over the disappearance of tennis player Peng Shuai after she accused a retired Chinese Communist Party leader of sexual assault.
The Women’s Tennis Association last week suspended all tournaments in China after being shown “insufficient evidence” Ms Peng was safe.
Piling pressure on the FCDO to act, Edward Pingyuan Lu, a Taiwanese Chevening alumnus, said: “The UK government has released a statement to urge the Chinese authorities to provide verifiable evidence of tennis star Peng Shuai’s safety and whereabouts.
“It also needs to express its concerns over the disappearance of Chinese journalist Huang Xueqin.”
The women’s rights movement in China has long faced challenges, with feminist activists like Ms Huang suppressed by the authorities and courts dismissing the few legal cases some women have dared to file.
In 2015, five Chinese feminists were arrested and detained for 37 days in Beijing for planning to commemorate International Women’s Day by handing out stickers about sexual harassment on the subway.
Human rights campaigners have also warned that Chinese officials are likely to launch another crackdown on civil liberties before next year’s Beijing Winter Olympics to avoid the threat of any protests on the world stage.