Hong Kong Activist Joshua Wong Sentenced to 10 Years for Collusion Under National Security Law

Hong Kong’s High Court sentenced activist Joshua Wong to 10 years in prison on November 5, 2026, on a charge of collusion with foreign entities under the city’s national security law. Wong, 30, pleaded guilty in September. The sentence runs largely concurrent with a previous term, but he is not expected to be released until late 2036, when he will be 40.

Judge William Tam said the punishment must fit the gravity of the crime and that the court needed to express the community’s abhorrence of the scheme. He described Wong’s actions as grave in nature. Prosecutors accused Wong of conspiring with self-exiled activist Nathan Law and others between July and November 2020 to urge foreign countries, bodies, or individuals to impose sanctions, blockades, or other hostile measures against the Hong Kong and Chinese governments.

Wong had visited the United States to seek foreign attention before the national security law took effect in 2020 and continued to share posts by Law calling for sanctions afterward. The judge said Wong’s role was to supply underground support and arouse foreign attention to the cause. Tam considered a 13-year starting point but reduced it to 10 years because of the guilty plea and mitigation.

Wong has been in detention since November 2020, when he pleaded guilty to inciting and organising an unauthorised assembly during the 2019 protests. He was serving a four-year, eight-month sentence in the “Hong Kong 47” case involving an unofficial primary election and had been due for release in January 2027. Two months and two days of the new sentence will run concurrently with the remaining portion of the prior term.

Wong rose to international prominence as a teenage leader of the 2014 Umbrella Movement and later co-founded the now-defunct Demosisto party with Law. He was once the public face of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests. Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said Wong and Law were among the primary culprits responsible for undermining the city’s prosperity and stability.

The national security law was imposed by Beijing in 2020 after months of sometimes violent demonstrations. Authorities have used it to prosecute dozens of opposition figures. Media tycoon Jimmy Lai received a 20-year sentence earlier in 2026 under the same legislation. International responses included criticism from the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong, which said the sentencing showed Beijing would go to extraordinary lengths to silence advocates for fundamental freedoms. Human Rights Watch called for Wong’s immediate and unconditional release.

Wong stood in the dock and remained silent as the sentence was delivered. Supporters outside the court waved to him. The case is Wong’s second conviction under the national security law. He has spent nearly six years in custody already.