Hong Kong’s High Court handed democracy campaigner Joshua Wong an additional 10-year prison term on Thursday, convicting him of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the national security law Beijing imposed on the city in 2020. Wong, who turns 30 last month, had been due for release in January after completing a four-year, eight-month sentence for subversion. Instead, he will remain behind bars until late 2036, when he will be 40.
- Key Point: Wong received a 10-year sentence for conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, his second conviction under the national security law.
- Key Point: He had been expected to be freed in January 2027 after serving a term for subversion in Hong Kong’s largest national security trial.
- Key Point: Judge William Tam described the offense as “grave in nature” and set a 13-year starting point before reducing it for Wong’s guilty plea.
- Key Point: Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International condemned the sentence, while supporters gathered outside the court in a heavy police presence.
Court Sets Starting Point at 13 Years
Judge William Tam said the offense was of a grave nature and rejected arguments that Wong’s role had been limited. He adopted a 13-year prison term as his starting point before reducing it to account for Wong’s guilty plea, entered in September. The judge ruled that two months and two days of the new term would run concurrently with the remainder of Wong’s existing sentence, leaving him with roughly two months left to serve on the earlier conviction.
Wong appeared in court wearing a dark blue long-sleeved shirt, khaki trousers and black-rimmed glasses, looking slimmer than in previous public appearances. He nodded in greeting toward a packed public gallery and took notes as the judge read out the reasons for sentencing. After the ruling, he thanked and waved at supporters as he left, and some in the crowd were heard saying they would wait for his release. Dozens of Hongkongers had queued for hours for a seat in the gallery, and international diplomats attended the hearing.
Prosecutors alleged that Wong conspired with other campaigners, including self-exiled activist Nathan Law, to lobby foreign governments for sanctions and blockades against Beijing and Hong Kong. The court heard that the activities took place between July and late November 2020. The two had co-founded Demosisto, a pro-democracy political party that disbanded in 2020. Authorities also pointed to Wong’s meetings with U.S. politicians, including Nancy Pelosi and Marco Rubio, in 2016 and 2019, and to his promotion of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which allows the U.S. president to impose sanctions over human rights violations in the city.
Rights Groups Call Sentence Cruel and Unjust
Human Rights Watch described the ruling as “cruel and unjust” and called for Wong’s immediate and unconditional release. The organization said the Hong Kong government appears to have adopted a tactic of stacking charges against influential pro-democracy leaders to ensure their prolonged detention and to reduce the chance of an international outcry. It noted that other prominent figures, including Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai and veteran activists Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho, have faced similar treatment.
“The harsh sentence on baseless charges against Joshua Wong is cruel and unjust,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Young people promoting social change are an asset for any vibrant society, but the Hong Kong government puts them behind bars.”
Amnesty International’s deputy regional director, Sarah Brooks, said the sentence was another grim reminder of how the national security law has become a tool to punish dissent rather than to genuinely protect national security. Nathan Law, speaking from exile, said it was incredibly sad to see his friend suffer another sentencing over his peaceful advocacy work for Hong Kong’s democracy.
“The signal the sentencing sent to the world is that [China] is determined to quash any hopes for freedom and democracy on its soil,” Law said.
Frances Hui, a friend and fellow activist now based in the United States, told media she was heartbroken and outraged by the verdict, describing it as part of a broader political crackdown aimed at rewriting a chapter of Hong Kong’s history. Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London, said Beijing had identified Wong as one of the key leaders of what it saw as an open rebellion in 2019 and that the sentencing showed the authorities were keeping a tight rein on the city.
From Umbrella Movement to Repeat Defendant
Wong rose to prominence as a teenager during the 2014 Umbrella Movement, the pro-democracy demonstrations that paralyzed the city’s financial center and galvanized a generation of young people. He had co-founded the student activist group Scholarism in 2011 at age 14, and the group rallied more than 100,000 people the following year against plans for mandatory patriotic education in schools, forcing authorities to back down. In 2016, he co-founded Demosisto with Law and Agnes Chow.
He has been in and out of prison since 2017 over protest-related prosecutions and has spent nearly six years in detention. In November 2024, he was jailed for four years and eight months for conspiracy to commit subversion over his role in an unofficial primary election, part of the city’s largest national security trial. He is the only activist in Hong Kong prosecuted twice under the national security law.
Wong’s lawyer, Derek Chan, had urged the court to impose a sentence that would give his client some hope, saying Wong wishes to care for his parents after his release. Friends said Wong has kept busy reading and exercising during his time in prison and has taught himself guitar. Louis Lee, a friend and former Scholarism member, said Wong remained energetic behind bars but was sometimes worried and nervous about the sentencing.
Hong Kong authorities maintain that the security law was crucial for stability after the 2019 anti-government protests and that their enforcement actions are evidence-based. Beijing views Wong as an anti-China figure supporting Hong Kong independence, a stance that crosses its red line. The harshest sentence under the law so far went to Jimmy Lai, who received 20 years for colluding with foreign forces.
The sentence effectively removes one of the city’s most recognizable democracy figures from public life until middle age, and it signals that authorities intend to keep prominent activists detained for as long as the legal framework allows. With Wong’s earlier term nearly exhausted, the new ruling ensures his continued incarceration well into the next decade, a outcome that rights groups say will further chill civic activism in a city whose once-vibrant civil society has been largely dismantled. Foreign governments that have criticized the crackdown now face the question of whether to respond with targeted measures, while Wong’s supporters abroad are left waiting for a release date that has been pushed back by a decade.