Chinese music student convicted of stalking pro-democracy activist at Berklee

A flyer posted to a window on the Boston, Ma., campus of the Berklee College of Music in October of 2022. On Thursday, Chinese national Xiaolei Wu, 26, was convicted of harassing and stalking the person who posted the flyer.

Jan. 26 (UPI) — A Chinese national who studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston has been convicted of threatening and cyberstalking a fellow student who posted flies on the school’s campus in support democracy in the Asian nation.

Xiaolei Wu, 26, was convicted Thursday following a four-day jury trial on one count each of cyberstalking, stalking and interstate transmissions of threatening communications. Both stalking charges carry a maximum statutory penalty of five years’ imprisnmcnt, three years’ supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

“No one in this country should ever be subjected to threats of violence or a cyberstalking harassment campaign for expressing their political views,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy for the District of Massachusetts said in a statement Thursday announcing the verdict.

“Mr. Wu now stands as a convicted felon for his illegal efforts to suppress speech by a fellow Berklee School of Music student who was critical of the government of China. This type of conduct will never be tolerated.”

Wu was arrested in December 2022, and indicted by a federal grand Jury the next month over sending threatening online messages to another Berklee student who had posted a flyer on campus calling for democracy in China.

The flyer was posted around Oct. 22, 2022, when protests were erupting in China against the Chinese Communist Party and its leader, Xi Jinping, over strict COVID-19 restrictions put in place in the Asian nation.

The person responsible for posting the flyer had taken a photograph of it and shared the image on their personal WeChat, a Chinese social media platform, which Wu was a follower of.

A photograph of the flyer included in court documents shows it read: “We want freedom. We went food on our tables. We want to breathe. We want art. We want democracy. We want to love. Stand with Chinese people.”

Wu, on seeing the poster, began to send the individual threatening messages on WeChat and Instagram from Oct. 22 to Oct. 24, 2022.

“Post more, I will chop your bastard hand[s] off,” Wu told the person in Chinese at about 10:50 p.m. on Oct. 22, according to court documents.

At 1:54 a.m. on Oct. 23, Wu told the person on WeChat that they had called the “tipoff line” of China’s public security agency, who would “go greet your family.”

China’s Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Public Security are known to investigate political dissidents, and the court document states that such a threat like the one made by Wu “would be reasonably expected to cause substantial emotional distress to that person.”

Wu also tried to find the person’s home, and even asked the Berklee College of Music’s information technology department to provide him with the information. Other harassing tactics included publicly posting his victim’s email, which he encouraged others to send abusive messages to.

“What Xiaolei Wu did in attempting to silence and intimidate an activist who expressed dissension with the ruling Communist Party of China is not only criminal, but completely against our country’s democratic values,” Special Agent in Charge Jodi Cohen of the FBI Boston Division said in a statement.

“Today’s conviction upholds one of our most fundamental rights — freedom of speech — and the FBI will ensure that anyone who tries to infringe on this right using threats or harassment will face the same fate as Mr. Wu.”