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China sentences Canadian pop star Kris Wu to prison for rape

November 26, 2022

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HONG KONG — Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu was sentenced to 13 years in prison by a Beijing court on Friday on rape charges, in one of China’s most high-profile #MeToo cases.

The sentence was welcomed by women’s rights advocates, who have come up against Beijing’s growing intolerance for dissent and grassroots activism under President Xi Jinping. Chinese lawyers said Wu had the right to appeal his sentence. He had previously denied the allegations.

Wu, also known as Wu Yifan, rose to fame as a member of South Korean-Chinese boy band Exo and later became a solo artist. He was arrested in 2021 after multiple charges were brought against him, which led to widespread public condemnation. At the time, luxury brands such as French fashion label Louis Vuitton and German automaker Porsche distanced themselves from the pop idol, with whom they had commercial agreements.

“This is heartening news, especially in the context where women’s rights in the country have been continuously eroded over the past decade,” Yaqiu Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch, said. of the conviction. “Now other victims of sexual assault in China can feel empowered to tell their stories and seek justice.”

However, Wang warned that censorship of women’s rights activists in China continues. She also noted that, in the case against Wu, the prosecution was “shrouded in secrecy” and “some of the criticism of the authorities’ handling of his case has been scrubbed from the Chinese internet,” he said. she stated.

“In other words, the ruling Chinese Communist Party can take away today’s victory and make progress at any time,” Wang said.

On Friday, Wu was sentenced to 11 and a half years in prison for rape, plus one year and 10 months for “collective obscenity”, according to a statement published by the Beijing Chaoyang. District Court Weibo account. The court said he would be jailed for a total of 13 years and deported.

The court statement detailed that Wu assaulted three women, who were under the influence of alcohol and “unable to resist”, at his home from November to December 2020. In 2018, he came to terms with others to organize “lewd activities” with two women. , the court said.

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The statement said officials from the Canadian Embassy were present during the sentencing. Wu, who was born in China but moved to Canada as a child, holds Canadian citizenship.

The online firestorm began when Du Meizhu, the first woman to publicly accuse Wu of assault, detailed her allegations in an interview with NetEase, a Chinese media outlet. In the interview, Du said that Wu lured her to his house and doused her with alcohol when she was 17. About two dozen women came forward with allegations after Du spoke out.

On the day of the sentencing, Du wrote on his verified Weibo page that “justice has been delayed, but it has come.” His post was liked more than 2.5 million times on Saturday afternoon. What’s On Weibo, a news site that tracks Chinese social media, reported that Du had “celebrated” the phrase in a live stream and that a hashtag in Chinese, translated as “Wu Yifan turns 13”, had been viewed more than 1.7 billion times.

Separately on Friday, Wu was fined around $84 million by authorities for tax offenses committed between 2019 and 2020, Reuters reported.

Healy reported from Washington. Eva Dou contributed to this report.