Pop star Kris Wu receives 13-year sentence for sex crimes

Kris Wu (Wú Yìfán 吴亦凡), the Chinese-born Canadian singer who was once one of China’s biggest pop stars, has been convicted of multiple sex-related crimes and sentenced to 13 years in prison by a Beijing court. It is the culmination of a case that fueled China’s embattled #MeToo movement and a government crackdown on zealous fans.

The fallen celebrity was handed down his punishment by Beijing’s Chaoyang District Court on Friday. In a statement on social media, the court said that it had imposed 11 years and six months on Wu for raping three women who were “intoxicated and defenseless” at his home in 2020. The 32-year-old was also found guilty of “assembling a crowd to engage in promiscuous activities” in ​July 2018, a crime in China that resulted in an additional jail term of one year and 10 months.

According to the ruling, after serving his combined 13-year prison time in China, Wu, who holds Canadian citizenship, will be immediately deported. Officials from the Canadian embassy in China were present at Friday’s sentencing, the court said.

“Based on the facts, the nature, the circumstances, and the harmful consequences of Wu’s crimes, the court made the above judgment,” the court wrote in an online statement.

In a separate announcement on Friday, the Chinese government said that it had levied a fine of 600 million yuan ($83.7 million) on Wu for evading taxes by massively underreporting his earnings from performances, advertisements, and other sources of income between 2019 and 2020.

The sentencing capped a precipitous fall from grace for Wu that started in July 2021 when Dū Měizhú 都美竹, a 19-year-old university student and social media influencer, accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was too drunk to give consent. Her story led a handful of young women to come forward and detail a pattern of predatory behavior, alleging, among other things, that Wu lured models and actresses, some underage, into inappropriate sexual relationships with career promises, which rarely materialized.

Wu initially denied any wrongdoing, and instead villainized the alleged victims, calling them petty liars. The Chinese internet overwhelmingly sided with his accusers, and the enormous outcry prompted more than a dozen companies, including several major global brands, to cut ties with Wu, marking a significant blow to his professional career.

As the scandal intensified, Beijing police made a formal arrest of Wu in August 2021 on suspicion of rape, which was followed up by a closed-door trial began in June.

Prior to his arrest, Wu was one of China’s most popular entertainers, with numerous passionate fans and brand deals. He first rose to stardom a decade ago as a member of the enormously popular South Korean-Chinese supergroup EXO, where he was the leader of the group’s Mandarin sub-unit EXO-M. In 2014, he parted ways with the K-pop act and returned to China to pursue a career in the industry as a solo artist. Since then, Wu has released several albums, and appeared in a plethora of Chinese variety shows and big-budget movies.

The downfall of Wu occurred in tandem with China’s crackdown on its entertainment sector in the summer of 2021, when the government rolled out a bevy of measures to reduce celebrity influence and curb the excessive nature of Chinese fan culture, such as blacklisting a host of entertainers — including Wu — from media-related work, banning the ranking of celebrities by popularity on social media, and ordering platforms to control the participation of underage fans.

Marking the end of a case that has captured worldwide attention, the court’s decision has made Wu one of the most prominent figures in China to be punished for #MeToo allegations. When Du, the first accuser, went public with her claims, she received a groundswell of support from women on Chinese social media, who used the hashtag #girlshelpgirls to express solidarity with her and call for Wu to leave show business.

On the day of the sentencing, Du wrote on Weibo that she was glad that Wu was finally brought to justice. “I’m not a hero as many people think I am. I’m just an ordinary person who found the courage to speak the truth,” she wrote. “I am very grateful that China’s legal system does not spare any criminals, even if he is a big star.” Du’s post so far has racked up nearly 300,000 likes and thousands of comments applauding her persistence and bravery.