The court sentenced the democracy activist on 5 November for conspiring to collude with foreign forces. The judge said 2 months and 2 days overlap with his existing term, adding nearly 9 years and 10 months in prison.
Hong Kong’s High Court sentenced democracy activist Joshua Wong to 10 years in prison on 5 November 2026, for conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the National Security Law. He pleaded guilty on 2 September.
Wong was already serving a 4-year, 8-month sentence imposed in November 2024 for conspiracy to commit subversion over his role in an unofficial primary election. Before the new sentence, he had been due for release in January 2027.
Wong has been in custody since November 2020, when he pleaded guilty to organizing and inciting an unauthorized assembly linked to the 2019 protests. Authorities brought the foreign-collusion charge in June 2025 while he was still serving earlier sentences.
The judge said 2 months and 2 days of the new term would run at the same time as the existing sentence, the BBC said, meaning the new term adds nearly 9 years and 10 months beyond the earlier sentence. Human Rights Watch gave the overlap as 2 months.
Prosecutors accused Wong of working with exiled activist Nathan Law to urge foreign powers to impose sanctions, blockades or other hostile measures against China. Judge William Tam described Wong’s conduct as grave and as part of a scheme to collude with foreign governments. He said Wong had visited the United States to seek foreign interference before the law was introduced and later shared Law’s posts calling for sanctions.
Human Rights Watch says the law provides for three to 10 years in prison for foreign collusion, or 10 years to life for offenses deemed grave. A guilty plea normally earns a one-third reduction, but cannot bring a sentence below the statutory minimum.
Human Rights Watch said the prosecution relied heavily on lobbying and media advocacy before the law took effect. The government also cited later posts in which Wong said he would continue seeking international support, as well as his reposts of Law’s calls for sanctions against Chinese officials and Hong Kong police. The organization said Wong had mostly stopped his international advocacy before the law began and that later opinion pieces and interviews cited by the government did not directly call for sanctions.
The Cheonghae naval unit’s planned mission will be restricted to open waters south of Oman, a ministry official said, as South Korea seeks to protect citizens and economic interests.
Wong became a prominent teenage democracy activist after leading a major 2012 protest against a government education curriculum widely seen as political indoctrination. He became internationally recognized during the 2014 Umbrella Movement and co-founded the Demosisto party with Law and others in 2016. The party disbanded on 30 June 2020, hours before the security law took effect.
China introduced the law in 2020, saying it was needed to restore stability in Hong Kong. Human Rights Watch’s Asia director, Elaine Pearson, called the charges baseless and the sentence cruel and unjust. The organization called for Wong’s immediate, unconditional release and projects that he faces imprisonment until late 2036.
Amnesty International deputy regional director Sarah Brooks called the law a tool for punishing dissent that does not genuinely protect national security. Law described Wong’s work as peaceful advocacy for democracy and said the sentence signaled China’s determination to quash hopes for freedom and democracy.
Pearson urged concerned governments to denounce the sentences against Wong and other activists whom Human Rights Watch considers wrongfully detained, press for their release, impose targeted sanctions on implicated officials and review their broader relationships with China in light of what she called deepening abuses.
2 min
The combined total fell 40% from a year earlier and was the lowest October figure since 2011, according to Interior Ministry figures.
1 min
The proposed cut from 50,000 to 25,000 annual admissions would start on 1 January 2027, if Germany’s Bundesrat approves it.
1 min
Update ·
The update adds the judge’s precise overlap of 2 months and 2 days and explains how much imprisonment the new sentence adds.
