Joshua Wong sentenced to 10 years in Hong Kong foreign collusion case

Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison for colluding with foreign forces under the city's national security law. Wong, who has spent the past six years behind bars, had been scheduled for release in January before the latest conviction extended his imprisonment.

Wong pleaded guilty in September to the latest charges. Prosecutors accused him of conspiring with fellow campaigners, including exiled activist Nathan Law, to seek foreign sanctions and blockades against Beijing between July and late November 2020. The judge said two months and two days of the new term would run concurrently with the sentence Wong is already serving for subversion.

Wong, who turned 30 in October, appeared in court wearing a dark blue shirt, khaki trousers and black-rimmed glasses. He appeared thinner than in earlier public appearances, nodded to people in the crowded gallery and occasionally wrote notes while the judge explained the sentence. Outside, dozens of people had waited for hours for seats, amid a substantial police presence.

Beijing imposed the national security law in 2020 after major pro-democracy demonstrations against its increasing control over Hong Kong. Hundreds of activists and ordinary residents have been arrested under it. Critics argue that the legislation has suppressed dissent, while authorities say it protects stability and reject claims that it has eroded Hong Kong's autonomy.

Frances Hui, a friend of Wong and fellow activist now living in the United States, told the BBC she was “heartbroken” and “outraged”. She described the sentence as part of a wider political crackdown aimed at erasing a generation's contribution to Hong Kong. Human Rights Watch called the ruling “cruel and unjust”. Its Asia director, Elaine Pearson, said authorities appeared to be piling charges onto prominent democracy campaigners to keep society subdued and limit international criticism.

Wong began campaigning as a teenager. At 14, he helped establish the student group Scholarism in 2011. The following year, it mobilised more than 100,000 people against compulsory patriotic education in schools, prompting authorities to withdraw the plans. His role in the 2014 Umbrella Movement made him one of Hong Kong's most recognisable democracy advocates.

In 2016, Wong founded the political party Demosisto with Law and Agnes Chow, who is also now in exile. The party dissolved in 2020. Law moved to Britain and continued campaigning, while Wong remained in Hong Kong. Authorities subsequently barred Wong from standing for the legislature, citing his opposition to the national security law among their reasons.

Wong admitted several offences connected with protests outside police headquarters in November 2020. While imprisoned in February 2021, he became one of 47 people charged with conspiracy to commit subversion, the largest prosecution under the security law so far. He was serving a 56-month sentence for that conviction when the collusion charges were brought in 2025.

The longest sentence imposed under the national security law so far is the 20-year prison term given to former media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who was also convicted of colluding with foreign forces.