Canadian singer Chris Wu sentenced to 13 years imprisonment

A Beijing court found Canadian-born Chinese pop singer Kris Wu guilty of rape on Friday and sentenced him to 13 years in prison, making him one of the most well-known individuals in the nation to suffer punishment as a result of #MeToo allegations. Kris Wu was once one of China's most well-known entertainers.

The Chaoyang District People's Court in Beijing announced on social media that Mr. Wu had been found guilty of exploiting three inebriated women and forcing them to have sex at his home in 2020. He was also found guilty, according to the court, of "gathering a mob to participate in promiscuous behaviour."

Mr. Wu, also known as Wu Yifan in China, was a social media sensation with tens of millions of followers prior to his arrest in 2021. He gained notoriety as a member of the Korean pop band EXO before launching a lucrative solo career as a model, singer, and actor. He was born in China and spent part of his upbringing in Canada. More than a dozen well-known national and international companies, including Bulgari, Louis Vuitton, and Porsche, signed endorsement contracts with him.

However, his career was destroyed when he was charged with luring young ladies to his house to talk about potential employment prospects and then bribing them with wine before pressing them for sex, according to an 18-year-old university student. Du Meizhu, the accuser, asserted that she thought Mr. Wu had victimized other young ladies in this way.

Her tale was embellished "to boost her online fame," according to the police's initial investigation into her claims, which infuriated her fans and sparked claims that the authorities were victim-shaming her.

As a result, Ms. Du's claims received more attention, creating a rare groundswell of support in a nation where women are frequently discouraged from reporting sexual misconduct and where those who have been sexually assaulted or harassed are frequently singled out for online abuse and even taken to court for defamation.

“This day has finally arrived,” Ms. Du wrote on the country’s popular Weibo social media platform after the prison sentence was announced. “I am very grateful for China’s legal system that does not spare any criminals, even if he is a big star,” she later added.

Following Mr. Wu's arrest last year, Communist Party media sources in China welcomed the arrest as a warning to celebrities that not even fame can protect them from the law.