BEIJING (AP) — Chinese students are expressing rare public outrage over Peking University's efforts to pressure a student to stop her activism over a decades-old alleged rape case.

The backlash, regarded as a pivotal moment in China's nascent #MeToo movement, began this week after Yue Xin, a Peking University senior, published a letter online detailing the university's efforts to threaten and intimidate her into silence.

An open letter said to be from students and faculty and dated Wednesday condemned the school's "unjust treatment" of Yue.

Yue and other students had asked the university to disclose details of its investigation into sexual misconduct by a former professor against a student who killed herself.

Yue wrote that a university employee brought her distraught mother to her dormitory in the middle of the night.