【09/20 Case Updates】Guangzhou-based labor and women’s rights activists go missing

Chinese investigative journalist and #MeToo activist Sophia Huang Xueqin and workers’ rights advocate Wang Jianbing went missing in Guangzhou on Sunday, Sept. 19, with their friends fearing detention.

Wang was accompanying Huang to Shenzhen, from where Huang was supposed to travel on to Hong Kong and then fly to Britain for the start of her master’s program at the University of Sussex. Their friends lost contact with them on the afternoon of Sept. 19.

Wang is assumed to be under investigation related to charges of inciting to subvert the state, according to people familiar with the situation. The charges are related to Wang having regular meetings with his friends at his apartment.

Born in 1983, Wang is an independent labor rights advocate. After graduating from university in 2005, he joined the Beijing Western Sunshine Rural Development Foundation, where he worked as a project manager for five years. In 2014, he joined the Guangzhou Gongming Social Work Development Center and developed projects focused on youth with disabilities.

Huang, born in 1988, is an independent journalist and women’s rights activist. She was previously an investigative reporter for the Guangdong-based Southern Weekly and New Express newspapers. She was one of the initiators of the #MeToo movement in China.

Huang was detained by Guangzhou police in October 2019 on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” after posting an essay on Chinese social media about peaceful protests in Hong Kong. She was released on bail in January 2020.

This year, she was a recipient of the Chevening Scholarship for graduate studies, funded by the British government. She was scheduled to fly out to Britain on Sept. 20 to start her master’s program at the University of Sussex.