Hong Kong Activist: Joshua Wong Receives 10-Year Sentence
The 30-year-old leader was convicted under the national security law for conspiring with foreign forces.
By Stella Brooks ·
Joshua Wong will spend the next decade behind bars following a Thursday sentencing in Hong Kong.
The 30-year-old activist was found guilty of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security. This marks his second conviction under the law imposed by Beijing. He pleaded guilty to the charge in September 2026, a legal step often used to lower the final prison term.
Judge William Tam began the sentencing calculation with a proposed 13-year term. He lowered that figure because Wong accepted the guilty plea. The judge described the offense as grave and rejected the defense argument that Wong’s role was limited. Wong is already serving a separate four-year and eight-month sentence for his involvement in the city’s largest national security case linked to an unofficial primary. He had been expected to be released from that term in January 2027.
The judge allowed Wong to serve both sentences at the same time. This decision means he will remain in custody for the full 10-year period. Wong has approximately two months remaining on his previous sentence for the primary election case.
Wong’s legal team urged the court to consider his personal circumstances. His lawyer, Derek Chan, asked for a sentence that offered hope of release so Wong could care for his parents. Friends described a prisoner who remained active during his nearly six years in detention. They said he continued to read, exercise, and teach himself guitar while refining his political views.
The prosecution argued that Wong and fellow activist Nathan Law coordinated efforts to lobby foreign governments for over a decade. They alleged the pair began plotting in or around 2016 to achieve democratic self-determination. The case cited meetings with U.S. politicians Nancy Pelosi and Marco Rubio in 2016 and 2019. After the security law was enacted, Law and others expanded their work abroad by meeting foreign leaders and launching petition drives. Wong supported these efforts from inside Hong Kong by using foreign media and social platforms to draw attention to requests for sanctions and blockades.
Supporters gathered outside the court to watch Wong leave the building. He appeared calm and thanked the crowd. Tiffany Chin, a former member of the disbanded group Scholarism, was among those present and was seen in tears. Another supporter, ET Wong, noted that the young activist possessed big-picture thinking that many adults lacked. She expressed her belief that he should not have spent a single day in wrongful imprisonment.
Legal experts view the sentence as a signal of Beijing’s intent to maintain a firm grip on civic activism. Eric Lai, a research fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, stated that the national security law allows authorities to repeatedly charge specific political prisoners if the government deems it necessary. Observers note that this case continues a pattern of long sentences for prominent figures since the 2019 anti-government movement.
Beijing considers Wong an anti-China figure who supports independence, a position it views as a red line. Hong Kong authorities maintain that the security law is essential for stability and that their enforcement actions are based on evidence. The government’s stance contrasts with the city’s previous reputation for a freewheeling civil society and vibrant media scene.
Wong’s influence remains a point of tension for the pro-Beijing camp. In September, a local newspaper criticized a 2017 Netflix documentary about Wong for beautifying his actions. The city’s security bureau told local media it was taking follow-up action on the film. The documentary subsequently rose to the top of Netflix’s popular chart in Hong Kong.
