Hong Kong sentences democracy activist Joshua Wong to 10 years under security law

Hong Kong's most recognisable pro-democracy activist, Joshua Wong, was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison for conspiring with an exiled former political ally to lobby foreign governments for sanctions against the city and Beijing. The sentence, imposed under the national security law China introduced in Hong Kong in 2020, is among the longest handed to a pro-democracy figure since the law took effect, and it extends Wong's imprisonment roughly a decade beyond the release date he had been expecting in January.

Wong, 30, arrived at court in a dark blue shirt and khaki trousers, looking thinner than in previous public appearances after six years already spent in custody. Dozens of Hongkongers queued for hours outside for a seat in the packed public gallery, watched by a heavy police presence, as the judge read out the reasons for the sentence.

A guilty plea years in the making

The charge, conspiracy to collude with a foreign country or external elements to endanger national security, was filed against Wong last year while he was already serving a separate prison term. Prosecutors said that between July and late November 2020, Wong worked with Nathan Law, a co-founder with him of the now-defunct pro-democracy party Demosisto, to request that foreign governments and institutions impose sanctions or other hostile measures against Hong Kong and Beijing. Wong pleaded guilty to the charge in September, in proceedings brought by Hong Kong's Department of Justice. Because the offence carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, the case was moved out of the magistrates' courts and into the High Court once committal proceedings concluded.

The judge ordered that two months and two days of the new 10-year term run concurrently with the sentence Wong is already serving. The rest will be added on top, meaning Wong, who had expected to walk free in January after completing a four-year-and-eight-month sentence for subversion, will instead remain behind bars for years to come.

Law, who has lived in Britain since 2020 and is wanted by Hong Kong police over separate national security allegations, was named in court as a co-conspirator but was not in Hong Kong to be sentenced alongside his former colleague.

One of hundreds prosecuted under a sweeping law

Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong in June 2020, following months of mass pro-democracy protests the previous year. Since then, hundreds of campaigners and ordinary residents have been arrested under the law, which Beijing and the Hong Kong government say was necessary to restore stability, and which critics say has been used to dismantle the city's political opposition and independent civil society.

Wong has spent much of the past decade moving between activism and prison. Diagnosed with dyslexia as a child, he co-founded the student group Scholarism at 14 in 2011 and helped lead a protest the following year that forced the government to shelve a compulsory "patriotic education" curriculum. By 2014 he had become a central figure in the Umbrella Movement, the mass civil disobedience campaign that occupied parts of the city for weeks. He co-founded Demosisto with Law and the activist Agnes Chow, now also living in exile, in 2016.

He is currently serving time over his role in an unofficial 2020 opposition primary election, a case that became known as the Hong Kong 47 and remains the largest prosecution brought under the security law to date. The heaviest sentence imposed under the law so far went to the former media proprietor Jimmy Lai, who was jailed for 20 years, also for colluding with foreign forces.

The "foreign collusion" charge used against Wong has become one of the security law's most frequently deployed tools against figures with an international public profile. Wong himself had testified before the United States Congress and met members of the European Parliament during the 2019 protests, appearances the Hong Kong and Chinese governments have since repeatedly cited as evidence of the kind of foreign lobbying the law was designed to punish. Lawyers and diplomats following the city's national security prosecutions say the pattern of filing a new charge against a defendant shortly before an existing sentence ends, as happened with both Wong and Lai, has become a recurring feature of the law's use against its highest-profile targets.

A sharp divide in reaction

Hong Kong's chief executive, John Lee, said in a statement carried on the Hong Kong government's press release portal that Wong and Law were "among the primary culprits responsible for undermining Hong Kong's prosperity and stability," adding that their actions "not only severely undermined national sovereignty, security, and development interests, but also directly prejudiced the well-being of the general public and the stability of society." China's foreign ministry said Beijing "firmly supports [Hong Kong] in safeguarding national security in accordance with the law" and called on "relevant parties" to "earnestly respect China's sovereignty and Hong Kong's legal system," a phrase typically directed at Western governments that have criticised the law.

Human Rights Watch's Asia director, Elaine Pearson, called the ruling "cruel and unjust."

"To keep Hong Kong society subdued, and to reduce the chance of an international outcry, the Hong Kong government appears to have adopted the tactic of stacking charges against influential pro-democracy leaders," Pearson said.

Frances Hui, a fellow activist and friend of Wong's who is now based in the United States, said she was "heartbroken" and "outraged" by the sentence. "Today's sentencing is not just about Joshua," she said. "It is part of a broader political crackdown that seeks to rewrite a chapter of Hong Kong's history and erase the contributions of an entire generation who believed they could shape the future of their city."

What happens next

With the new sentence added to the time he is already serving, Wong is expected to remain in custody for roughly another decade, with no indication from the court of any prospect of early release. Law, who left Hong Kong for the United Kingdom shortly before the security law took effect and has continued campaigning from abroad, remains the subject of an outstanding Hong Kong police warrant and bounty, and is unlikely to return to face the charge against him.

Wong's case is likely to add to friction between Beijing and Western governments that have long criticised the security law's use against the city's pro-democracy movement, even as Hong Kong and Chinese officials continue to defend it as a necessary tool for restoring order after 2019. Rights groups say further prosecutions of figures connected to the Hong Kong 47 case and other security law proceedings are still working their way through the territory's courts.

For the generation of Hongkongers who came of age during the Umbrella Movement and the 2019 protests, Wong's sentence is likely to be read as confirmation that the political space they once occupied has closed. Civil society groups, independent unions and student bodies that were active a decade ago have mostly disbanded since 2020, and many of their former leaders are now either in prison, in exile, or have withdrawn from public life altogether. Diplomats and business groups in the city have also watched the widening use of the law with concern, warning that it complicates Hong Kong's efforts to present itself as a stable, rules-based hub for international finance even as officials insist the law has only targeted a small number of people who broke it.