Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong gets 10 more years in prison

Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison, his second conviction under the national security law Beijing imposed on the city, in a case critics say reflects the crackdown on the city's once-thriving pro-democracy movement.

Wong, 30, was charged in 2025 with conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security under the law. He pleaded guilty to the charge in September. He was accused of conspiring with self-exiled activist Nathan Law and others between July and November 2020 to ask foreign countries, bodies or individuals outside China to impose sanctions or blockades, or engage in other hostile activities against the government.

High Court Judge William Tam said during the sentencing hearing that Wong's offence was of a "grave nature" and rejected that his role was limited. "The punishment must fit the gravity of the crime," Tam told a packed courtroom. He said he considered a 13-year prison sentence as a starting point but reduced it because of Wong's guilty plea. The law sets prison terms of three to 10 years for foreign collusion, rising to 10 years to life for offences deemed to be of a grave nature.

Wong has been in detention since November 2020, when he pleaded guilty to inciting and organising an unauthorised anti-government assembly during protests that roiled the Asian financial hub in 2019. He is already serving a four-year, eight-month prison term for the city's biggest national security case, linked to an unofficial primary election, and had been expected to be freed in January 2027. He is the only activist in Hong Kong prosecuted twice under the security law. Two months of the new sentence will run concurrently with his current sentence, and Human Rights Watch said he now faces imprisonment until late 2036, when he will be 40.

Amnesty International called the sentence cruel, saying it was a grim reminder of the city's disdain for human rights. Human Rights Watch said the charges were baseless. Beijing says the law was necessary to restore stability following widespread unrest in 2019.