Hong Kong leader gets 10-year prison term

Joshua Wong, a 30-year-old Hong Kong activist, received a 10-year prison sentence on Thursday. The verdict marks his second conviction under the national security law imposed by Beijing. Legal experts and critics view the ruling as a signal of the ongoing crackdown on the city's pro-democracy movement.

Wong pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security. Prosecutors argued that he and fellow activist Nathan Law worked to lobby international bodies for sanctions against Hong Kong and China. The court accepted that his role was serious, though Judge William Tam reduced the starting 13-year sentence because of the guilty plea.

The judge ruled that Wong's new 10-year term will run concurrently with his existing sentence. Wong is currently serving a four-year, eight-month prison term for a separate national security case linked to an unofficial primary election. He had been scheduled for release in January 2027. With the new sentence, his total time in custody will extend to the end of the 10-year period.

Wong appeared calm as he left the courtroom. He thanked his supporters, who gathered outside. Tiffany Chin, a former member of the now-disbanded group Scholarism, was among the attendees. She was visibly emotional as Wong departed. Resident ET Wong, a supporter, described Wong as a young man with big-picture thinking who walked a difficult path for Hong Kong's future.

Beijing views Wong as an anti-China figure. The Hong Kong authorities maintain that the security law is essential for stability following the 2019 protests. They stated that law enforcement actions were based on evidence. Eric Lai, a research fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, said the government could repeatedly use national security charges to keep specific political prisoners in jail if necessary.

During the trial, prosecutors detailed meetings Wong held with U.S. politicians, including Nancy Pelosi and Marco Rubio, in 2016 and 2019. They alleged that he used foreign media and social media to draw international attention to his cause. His lawyer, Derek Chan, asked the court for a sentence that allowed Wong to care for his parents after release. Chan noted that Wong spent his nearly six years in prison reading, exercising, and learning guitar.

Wong's influence remains a concern for the pro-Beijing camp. A September report in a pro-Beijing newspaper criticized a 2017 Netflix documentary about him for beautifying his crimes. The city's security bureau told local media the government was taking follow-up action. Despite the criticism, the documentary rose to the top of Netflix's popular chart in Hong Kong.