Joshua Wong, once the most recognizable face of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison for colluding with foreign forces, a ruling that will keep the activist locked up for nearly another decade under the city's sweeping national security law.
The 30-year-old had already spent six years in custody and was due to be released in January after completing a separate sentence in the "Hong Kong 47" case. Prosecutors said Wong, working with self-exiled activist Nathan Law and their now-defunct party Demosisto, lobbied foreign governments between July and November 2020 to impose sanctions and blockades against Beijing. He pleaded guilty to the charge in September, and the court ruled that two months of the new sentence will run concurrently with time already served.
A Widening Crackdown
Hong Kong's chief executive, John Lee, said in a statement that Wong and Law were "among the primary culprits responsible for undermining Hong Kong's prosperity and stability." Beijing's foreign ministry said it "firmly supports [Hong Kong] in safeguarding national security in accordance with the law."
Rights groups condemned the sentence. Human Rights Watch's Asia director, Elaine Pearson, called the ruling "cruel and unjust," and accused authorities of "stacking charges against influential pro-democracy leaders" to suppress dissent while minimizing international backlash. Wong's longtime friend Frances Hui, now based in the United States, told the BBC she was "heartbroken" and "outraged," describing the sentencing as part of a broader effort "to rewrite a chapter of Hong Kong's history and erase the contributions of an entire generation."
The national security law has been used against hundreds of campaigners and ordinary residents since Beijing imposed it in 2020 in response to the explosive protests of the previous year. Wong, who began his activism as a teenager leading the 2014 Umbrella Movement, has now spent most of his twenties in and out of custody. The harshest sentence handed down under the law so far belongs to former media tycoon Jimmy Lai, whose own national security case has drawn similar scrutiny from foreign governments and press-freedom groups.
Hong Kong authorities have consistently defended the law as necessary to restore order after 2019's unrest, insisting it has not eroded the city's promised autonomy under the "one country, two systems" framework. Critics, including Western governments that have imposed sanctions over the crackdown, say prosecutions like Wong's are designed to permanently remove any organized opposition before it can re-emerge.
