Joshua Wong Jailed 10 More Years in Hong Kong

Key takeaways: Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong was sentenced to 10 more years in prison on 5 November for colluding with foreign forces. Already in custody since 2020, he is now unlikely to be free until late 2036, when he turns 40.

Conceptual illustration of a stylised Hong Kong skyline at dusk with a gold scales-of-justice symbol and a courthouse column above the buildings, in navy, cream and gold — Illustration: WHAT TODAY?

Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong was sentenced to 10 more years in prison on Thursday, 5 November, after pleading guilty to conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the city’s national security law. The High Court ruling means the 30-year-old, who has been in custody since November 2020, is now unlikely to be free until late 2036, when he turns 40.

A second conviction under the security law

High Court Judge William Tam said Wong’s offence was of a “grave nature” and set a starting point of 13 years, cutting three years for his guilty plea in September. The maximum sentence for the charge was life imprisonment. “The punishment must fit the gravity of the crime,” the judge told a packed courtroom.

Prosecutors said Wong conspired with self-exiled activist Nathan Law and others between 1 July and 23 November 2020 to ask foreign governments to impose sanctions or blockades, or take other hostile action, against Hong Kong and China. Wong said he had never advocated Hong Kong independence or the collapse of China, and that he mistakenly believed his actions were within the law.

Wong was already serving four years and eight months for conspiracy to subvert state power in the “Hong Kong 47” case, over an unofficial primary election held by the pro-democracy camp in 2020. He had been due for release in January 2027, but the new sentence runs concurrently with the roughly two months left on that term, extending his time in prison by almost a decade.

Wong rose to prominence as a teenage leader of the 2014 Umbrella Movement and became an international face of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests in 2019. Beijing imposed the National Security Law on 30 June 2020, after months of unrest, and hundreds of pro-democracy politicians, activists, journalists and students have since been arrested under it. In February, media tycoon Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years under the same law.

Why it matters

The sentence shows the security law’s reach extends to activity from 2020, the year the law was imposed. For Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, it means its best-known figure will spend his thirties in prison. Human Rights Watch called the charges baseless, while Hong Kong and Beijing officials have consistently said the law was needed to restore stability after the 2019 protests.

What happens next

Unless he receives sentence remission, Wong will remain in prison until late 2036. The ruling is the latest in a series of long national security sentences, and it leaves the movement’s most recognisable figure out of public life for another decade. Attention will now turn to how the courts handle the remaining cases brought under the law, and whether any defendant challenges the scope of the collusion offence on appeal.