China sentences veteran rights campaigner to 13 years

BEIJING (AP) — China has sentenced a veteran pro-democracy campaigner to 13 years in prison on vaguely defined subversion charges, one day after releasing the widow of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

The People's Intermediate Court in the central city of Wuhan announced the sentencing of Qin Yongmin on its official website Wednesday.

On Tuesday, China allowed Liu Xia, wife of the late Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, to depart China for Germany after eight years under house arrest.

Liu's release heartened foreign governments and human rights campaigners who point out that she has never been charged with or convicted of any crime.

Qin's sentencing, however, underscores China's hard line against anyone challenging the ruling Communist Party.

Having already spent more than two decades in detention, Qin was arrested most recently in 2015.