Chinese Student Sentenced to Prison for Stalking and Threatening Pro-Democracy Activist
BEIJING — In a shocking turn of events, a Chinese student studying in the US has been handed a nine-month prison sentence for stalking and threatening a female Chinese student who bravely displayed pro-democracy fliers on her college campus.
The powerful message on the fliers, which were displayed at the Berklee College of Music in Boston in late 2022, declared: “We want freedom… We want democracy, we want to love, stand with Chinese people.”
Showing a disturbing level of aggression, Xiaolei Wu responded by threatening to “chop [the woman’s] hands off”.
Following his sentence, a federal judge has ruled that the 26-year-old must be deported after serving his time behind bars.
Expressing deep concern over the case, Jodi Cohen, head of the FBI’s Boston Division, remarked, “What Mr. Wu did in weaponizing the authoritarian nature of the People’s Republic of China to threaten this woman is incredibly disturbing.”
The incident occurred during a period of heightened activism among Chinese individuals living abroad, with the pro-democracy fliers sparking a wave of responses.
Court documents revealed that Wu, a jazz student at the university, actively engaged with his victim through email and various social media platforms including WeChat and Instagram.
He went as far as informing his victim that he had alerted Chinese authorities about her actions, claiming that China’s public security agency would intervene on her family’s behalf, detailed the US Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts.
Furthermore, Wu attempted to track down the woman and publicly shared her email address, with the intention of subjecting her to online abuse, according to authorities.
Wu was formally charged in December 2022, and during his conviction in January of this year, Acting US Attorney Joshua S. Levy asserted that Wu’s “violent threats achieved his goal of instilling fear” in the victim and any others who dared to speak out against the Chinese government.
Levy made it clear that the Department of Justice will not stand for any attempts to intimidate individuals and suppress their First Amendment rights, emphasizing that censorship and repression campaigns will not be tolerated in the US.
Under US law, the charge of cyberstalking carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, along with three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000 (£202,000). The same penalties apply to the charge of interstate transmission of threatening communications. — BBC
