CPJ, partners urge China to ensure #MeToo journalist Sophia Huang’s freedom as jail term nears end

New York, September 15, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists and partner organizations call on the Chinese authorities to ensure journalist Sophia Huang Xueqin is freed without any arbitrary restrictions, as she approaches the end of a five-year prison sentence.

Huang, whose reporting on human rights and sexual abuse helped spark China’s #MeToo movement, is due to be released on September 18 after serving a prison term on the charge of “inciting subversion of state power.”

“Sophia Huang Xueqin should never have spent a day in jail,” said CPJ Asia-Pacific Director Beh Lih Yi. “Her unjust imprisonment exposes the insecurity of China — a government that is afraid of independent journalism and women who dare to speak truth to power. The Chinese authorities must guarantee her full freedom, without any further delay or arbitrary restrictions.”

In a joint statement on Tuesday, CPJ was among 60 press freedom and human rights organizations that urged the Chinese government to ensure Huang is released immediately on Friday and guarantee that she could return to reporting without being subjected to surveillance, retaliation, or other forms of restrictions.

Police detained Huang and a friend, labor activist Wang Jianbing, on September 19, 2021, while they were on their way to an airport in southern China. Huang was due to fly to Britain to study at the University of Sussex.

Wang was jailed three and a half years on the same charge and was freed last year after completing the sentence.

China consistently ranks as the world’s worst jailer of journalists, with at least 50 journalists behind bars, according to CPJ’s latest research.