Hong Kong's High Court on Thursday sentenced pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong to 10 more years in prison for colluding with foreign forces, an offence under the national security law that Beijing imposed on the territory in 2020. The sentence was handed down by Judge William Tam.
Wong is 30 — he had his birthday in October — and has been behind bars since December 2020. He was serving a four-year-and-eight-month term for subversion and was due for release in January, about two months away. With the new conviction, he is not expected to leave prison until late 2036.
Thirteen years, cut for the guilty plea
The judge set the starting point for the sentence at 13 years and applied a discount for the plea: Wong admitted guilt in September this year. Tam described the offence as grave in nature, rejected the argument that the defendant's role had been limited, and said the punishment had to match the seriousness of the conduct and express the community's abhorrence of the scheme. The charge carries a maximum of life imprisonment.
In his ruling, the court described Wong and fellow activist Nathan Law — in exile and wanted by Hong Kong authorities — as the two ring-leaders or masterminds of a conspiracy to endanger national security.
The case: lobbying that begins in 2016
Wong was re-charged in June 2025, already in prison. Prosecutors argued that he asked other countries to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and China, and traced the start of that effort to 2016, when he began publicly campaigning for the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, the US law that passed years later.
In 2019, Wong joined a delegation that travelled to the United States to lobby for the bill. Prosecutors cited meetings in 2016 and 2019 with US lawmakers Nancy Pelosi and Marco Rubio, along with later meetings with foreign politicians and petition drives run by Law and others.
The defence, and what Wong wrote
Wong's lawyer, Derek Chan, asked for a sentence that would leave his client some prospect of a future, saying he wished to care for his parents once released. In a mitigation letter seen by the AFP news agency, Wong said he had hoped to leave prison in 2027 and that the new charge made him feel he was back at the beginning. He also wrote that his future would not be defined by what he did before 2020, and that his years in jail had been his most profound lessons. He thanked supporters as he left the court.
The reactions
The US consulate in Hong Kong said it "strongly" condemns the sentence and called for the activist's "immediate" release, describing him as unjustly imprisoned since December 2020. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun warned against "irresponsible remarks" about the case.
On the local authorities' side, Steve Li, chief superintendent of the Hong Kong police National Security Department, welcomed the decision and said it showed the futility of Wong's efforts to rally foreign sanctions. Taiwan's top body for China policy accused Beijing and the Hong Kong government of fabricating charges and carrying out political persecution.
Human Rights Watch called the sentence harsh and unjust. The organisation's Asia director, Elaine Pearson, urged his immediate release; the group also argued that foreign governments should impose targeted sanctions on officials responsible for repression in the territory.
The 2020 law and the squeeze on the opposition
Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, the year after the mass protests of 2019. Opposition groups have disbanded since then, and some activists have left the territory.
In February this year, businessman Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, was sentenced to 20 years under the same law. In 2024, dozens of pro-democracy figures were jailed for subversion in the largest national security trial the city has held; some have since been released.
Wong became known while still a teenager, as a student leader of the 2014 Umbrella Movement.
With information from Euronews and ABC News (Australia).
