Xiaolei Wu was sentenced to nine months in a US prison after threatening to cut off the hands of a fellow student who put up at the Berklee College of Music in Boston fliers supporting democracy in China. He will also be deported after serving his sentence.

A Chinese music student in the United States was sentenced Wednesday to nine months in prison for stalking and threatening to cut off the hands of a fellow student who posted pro-democracy fliers on campus.

The fliers, put up at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston in late October 2022 during a wave of activism among Chinese people abroad, read: “We want freedom... We want democracy, we want to love, stand with Chinese people.”

Xiaolei Wu, who was in the US on a student visa to study jazz, made a series of threats to the female Chinese student through email and social media platforms like WeChat and Instagram, including to “chop your b****** hands off” if more fliers were posted.

Wu also warned the victim, referred to in court only as Zooey, that he had informed the public security agency in China about her actions. He carried through on the threat by reporting her to his mother, a Chinese government official.

He also tried to track her down and publicly posted her email address, “in the hopes that others would abuse the victim online,” US authorities said.

Wu, who was arrested in December 2022, was found guilty in January of this year on charges of cyberstalking and threatening behaviour.

Prosecutors had urged US District Judge Denise Casper in Boston to sentence the 26-year-old to nearly three years in prison to send a message to China that the US would not tolerate Beijing’s attempts to silence people of Chinese descent who express views at odds with the Chinese government.

Casper, in imposing a shorter sentence, noted that Wu’s harassment campaign while “egregious” was short – just two days – and that Wu, who had no previous criminal history, would be deported upon completing his sentence.

But she said a prison sentence was nonetheless warranted to deter other Chinese nationals who come to the US to study and ensure they know that “no one can engage in criminal conduct, particularly conduct to suppress free speech”.

During Wu’s conviction in January, Acting US Attorney Joshua S. Levy said the student’s “violent threats achieved his goal of instilling fear” in his victim and others who might want to speak out against the Chinese government.

“Our office and the Department of Justice will not tolerate efforts to intimidate and threaten people to suppress their First Amendment rights. Censorship and repression campaigns will never be tolerated here,” he said.

Wu apologised in court for his “reckless behaviour”, saying he needed “to take responsibility and accept what I have done”.

“For making Zooey feel threatened, I feel very sorry,” he said.

US and Western authorities have been working to counter efforts by China’s government to silence its critics abroad. Human rights groups have complained of threats to academic freedom and monitoring of Chinese students on international university campuses.