Joshua Wong, once the most recognisable face of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for colluding with foreign forces under the city’s sweeping national security law. The sentence was handed down on Thursday.
The 30-year-old is one of hundreds of campaigners and ordinary residents arrested under the law, which Beijing imposed in 2020 after explosive pro-democracy protests. Critics say the law has silenced dissent. Authorities reject that view, arguing the law is needed to maintain stability and that it has not weakened the city’s cherished autonomy.
Wong’s new sentence adds a decade behind bars
Wong was already in prison and was due to be freed in January, after six years behind bars. Under the new term, he will now serve another decade. The judge said on Thursday that two months and two days of the 10-year sentence will run concurrently with his ongoing sentence.
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Wong pleaded guilty to the latest charges earlier in September. He arrived in court wearing a dark blue long-sleeved shirt, khaki trousers and black-rimmed glasses, and he looked slimmer than at his previous public appearances. He nodded to members of the packed public gallery and took notes as the judge read out the reasons for the sentence.
A crowd gathered outside the court, and dozens of people had queued for hours in the hope of securing a seat in the public gallery. Police maintained a heavy presence at the scene.
Prosecutors allege lobbying for foreign sanctions
Prosecutors said Wong conspired with other campaigners, including self-exiled activist Nathan Law, to lobby for foreign sanctions and blockades against Beijing. The court heard that these activities took place between July and late November 2020. Wong and Law were co-founders of Demosisto, a pro-democracy political party that no longer exists.
Frances Hui, a friend and fellow activist who is now based in the United States, said she was “heartbroken” and “outraged” by the verdict. She described the sentencing as part of a broader political crackdown aimed at rewriting a chapter of Hong Kong’s history.
Human Rights Watch described the ruling as “cruel and unjust”. Its Asia director, Elaine Pearson, said the Hong Kong government appeared to be stacking charges against influential pro-democracy leaders in order to keep society subdued and reduce the chance of an international outcry. The harshest sentence handed down under the national security law so far went to former media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who was jailed for 20 years for colluding with foreign forces.
From Scholarism founder to repeated prison terms
Wong was born in October 1996 to an IT professional, Roger, and a homemaker, Grace. He was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child, which made school difficult, but he was quick to challenge rules that he felt did not make sense. As a secondary school student, he rallied classmates to protest the high prices of canteen lunches on Facebook.
In 2011, Wong, then 14, co-founded the pro-democracy student group Scholarism. The following year, the group rallied more than 100,000 people against plans to introduce mandatory “patriotic education” in schools, and the authorities backed down. By 2014, Wong was at the forefront of the civil disobedience movement known as the “Umbrella Movement”. In 2016, he co-founded Demosisto with Law and Agnes Chow, who is also now in exile.
Wong often expressed discomfort at being called a “protest leader”. In an interview in November 2019, he said the movement had many facilitators and described a shift from top-down command to a bottom-up command hub. Demosisto disbanded in 2020, the year Beijing introduced the national security law. Wong later tried to run for a seat in the city’s legislature but was barred, with authorities citing his opposition to the law as one reason.
Wong’s legal troubles also mounted. On 23 November 2020, he pleaded guilty to several charges related to his involvement in protests outside Hong Kong’s police headquarters in 2019. In February 2021, while still in prison, he was among 47 people charged with conspiracy to commit subversion. The group, known as the Hong Kong 47, remains the largest prosecution so far under the law. Wong was still serving a 56-month sentence for the subversion conviction when he was charged with collusion last year.
