Hong Kong’s High Court on Thursday sentenced jailed pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong to an additional 10 years in prison after convicting him of colluding with foreign entities under the city’s national security law.
The penalty was handed down just two months before the 30-year-old was due to be freed from custody in January 2027. Wong, who has been detained since 2020, had pleaded guilty to the collusion charge in September.
High Court Judge William Tam told a packed courtroom that he initially weighed a 13-year sentence, but lowered the term to 10 years after taking into account Wong’s guilty plea and mitigation.
“The punishment must fit the gravity of the crime,” Tam said, adding that it was necessary for the court to reflect public abhorrence of schemes to work with external elements to endanger national security.
Prosecutors accused Wong of conspiring with self-exiled activist Nathan Law and other individuals to urge foreign governments, external organisations, and overseas figures to impose sanctions or blockades, or to carry out other hostile actions against the government.
Wong became a well-known face of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement during the 2019 demonstrations, which began over proposed extradition legislation before widening into broader protests. He was imprisoned in 2020 after admitting to inciting and organising an unauthorised assembly connected to those protests.
The sentencing brought sharp criticism from foreign governments. The United States consulate in Hong Kong condemned the extended imprisonment and demanded Wong’s immediate release, while Taiwan’s top China policy body condemned what it termed endless political persecution of democracy advocates.
Rights monitors also condemned the court's decision. “The harsh sentence on baseless charges against Joshua Wong is cruel and unjust,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, while Amnesty International warned that the national security law continues to serve as an instrument to penalise dissent.
