A Chinese student convicted of harassing a pro-democracy activist in China has been sentenced to nine months in a US prison, officials said.
Xiaoli Wu, 26, a former student at Berklee College of Music, threatened to cut off the victim’s hands and report their family to the Chinese government after publishing a leaflet on campus last year calling for democracy in China.
Wu, a guitarist who had been studying jazz in the United States, was on a student visa in the country. He apologized for his “reckless behavior.”
The flyer posted on the Berklee College of Music campus on October 22 included messages including: “Stand with the Chinese people,” “We want freedom,” and “We want democracy.”
US District Judge Dennis Casper announced Wednesday in Boston that Wu will be deported to China upon completion of his sentence, which is shorter than the three-year prison term requested by prosecutors.
Judge Casper said Wu’s campaign of harassment against the activist, a Chinese-American citizen, was short – just two days – but also “outrageous”, and noted that Wu had no prior criminal history.
She added that the ruling was to signal that no other Chinese citizen could “engage in criminal behaviour, especially behavior that suppresses freedom of expression.”
“Mr. Wu’s criminal conduct is extremely serious. He exploited fear of potential retaliation from the government of the People’s Republic of China to harass and threaten an innocent person who posted an innocuous pro-democracy post on the Berkeley campus,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said in a statement. a permit.
“Mr. Wu’s violent threats achieved his goal of instilling fear in his efforts to silence this brave victim and others who may wish to speak out against the government of the People’s Republic of China.”
Wu was convicted in January of making threats to a permanent resident of the United States who is originally from China and still has family members living there.
After seeing a photo of the activist placing the flyer on campus, Wu took to WeChat and posted threatening messages in a chat of 300 Chinese Berkeley students and alumni. The letter demanded that she take down her “reactionary” posts and threatened to cut off her hands if she published more.
Wu later apologized and said he needed to “take responsibility and accept what I did.”
