Hong Kong pro-democracy leader Joshua Wong jailed for another 10 years - The Independent

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A Hong Kong court has sentenced pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong to 10 years in prison on a charge of collusion with foreign entities under the city's draconian national security law.

Wong, who became one of the faces of the city’s 2019 protests and co-founded a pro-democracy party, has already spent almost six years in prison and was due to be released in January.

The 30-year-old was among a group of young people who were arrested after Beijing imposed a sweeping new national security law on the Asian financial hub in 2020 after months of sometimes violent demonstrations.

"The punishment must fit the gravity of the crime," ⁠High Court Judge William Tam told a packed courtroom on Thursday morning. "It is also necessary for the court to express the community’s abhorrence of the defendant's scheme and acts with others to collude with foreign forces or external elements to endanger ⁠national security."

Judge Tam added that while the security law was not retroactive, Wong's prior meetings with US and European politicians provided important context.

Wong's meeting with politicians from ‌the US, Europe and elsewhere had drawn the wrath of Beijing, which calls him ​a "black hand" of foreign forces.

The offences took place between 1 July and 23 November 2020, the judge added. Wong pleaded guilty to the charge in September this year.

"I ⁠have never advocated Hong Kong independence, nor have I ever promoted the 'collapse of China' or regime change," Wong said during the trial's mitigation phase. "I have also never received foreign funding or spent money to hire foreign political consultants."

Wong has been in custody since his arrest in November 2020, when he was 23 and was due for release next year following the completion of his first prison sentence.

The city’s authorities charged Wong again in June 2025, accusing him of asking other nations to impose sanctions against Hong Kong and China. He now faces imprisonment until 2036, when he will turn 40.

The former student leader entered the court on Thursday morning wearing a blue shirt and black glasses, flanked by three guards. He nodded to the public gallery ahead of the sentencing.

After the sentencing, he thanked and waved at his supporters queued outside the court as he left. Supporters told Wong: "We'll be waiting for your release."

Activist Nathan Law, Wong’s friend and named co-conspirator in the charges, called the sentencing “a farce”. He told The Independent that Wong’s sentencing showed that China “does not honour its promises to the Hong Kong people of freedom, autonomy, and a gradual path to democracy”.

Human rights groups have condemned the collusion charge against Wong and demanded his immediate and unconditional release.

“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.”

China has identified Wong as one of the “key leaders of what they see as an open rebellion in 2019 and [he] will be made an example of”, said Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London, told AFP.

Wong’s sentencing shows Beijing “is keeping a tight rein over Hong Kong and there's no scope for turning back to the more relaxed days before 2019”, he added.

Countries tracking the implementation of the national security law in the former British colony have been closely following Wong’s case.

Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith said Wong “stood up for an international treaty signed by the UK and the Chinese Communist Party, which the CCP has subsequently trashed”.

The co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China told The Independent: “Yet, despite this, the UK government has done little to nothing about it. The more we give in when China breaks the rules, the worse it gets in the future.”