FILE - Hong Kong teenage student leader Joshua Wong, left, stands in front of yellow umbrellas outside a magistrates' court in Hong Kong, on Sept. 2, 2015. Vincent Yu/AP hide caption
HONG KONG — Prominent Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday for his second conviction under a Beijing-imposed national security law, in a case that critics say reflects the crackdown on the city's once-thriving pro-democracy movement.
Wong was charged in 2025 with conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security under the law. In September, he pleaded guilty to the offense, a move that can typically reduce the sentence.
The 30-year-old is already serving a four-year, eight-month prison term for the city's biggest national security case linked to an unofficial primary after entering a guilty plea in that case. Before being prosecuted for the collusion-related charge, Wong had been expected to be freed in January 2027.
Judge William Tam said during the sentencing hearing that Wong's offense was of a grave nature and rejected that his role was limited.
He also said he considered a 13-year prison sentence as a starting point but reduced it because of Wong's guilty plea.
Wong looked calm and thanked his supporters before leaving the court. His supporters waved to him and Tiffany Chin, a former member of the now-disbanded Scholarism, once led by Wong, was in tears.
The judge said Wong could serve his two prison sentences concurrently. Wong only has about two months left on the sentence for his previous national security conviction.
Resident ET Wong said that when Joshua Wong was just teenager, he possessed "big-picture thinking" that some adults might not even have. He walked a difficult path for Hong Kong's future, human rights and student movement, she said.
"At least in my heart, he should not have spent a single day in wrongful imprisonment," she said.
Hong Kong once had a freewheeling civil society marked by its vibrant protest and media scenes. But after an anti-government movement rocked the city in 2019, authorities reduced public choice in elections and arrested many leading activists. Some news outlets known for their reports critical of the government shut down, and dozens of civil society groups dissolved.
FILE - Pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong speaks to reporters at the Legislative Council building in Hong Kong, Nov. 28, 2019. Kin Cheung/AP hide caption
Observers say Wong's sentencing shows the authorities' determination to keep prominent activists in prison for as long as possible, further chilling civic activism.
"NSL charges can be repeatedly weaponized to keep a specific political prisoner in jail, if the government deems necessary," said Eric Lai, a research fellow at Georgetown Center for Asian Law, referring to the national security law.
But Beijing views Wong as an anti-China figure supporting Hong Kong independence, a stance that crosses its red line. Hong Kong authorities also said the security law is crucial for the city's stability following the 2019 protests, maintaining that the city's law enforcement actions were evidence-based.
The prosecution previously alleged that Wong and fellow activist Nathan Law had agreed in or around 2016 to lobby internationally to achieve their goal of democratic self-determination. It said that before the security law was introduced, the pair had been calling for sanctions and other adverse measures against Hong Kong and China. It pointed to his meetings with U.S. politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Marco Rubio in 2016 and 2019.
After the law was enacted, Law and others advanced their work abroad by meeting foreign politicians and launching petition drives, it said. Wong supported the effort from Hong Kong through foreign media outlets and social media to draw foreign countries' attention and bolster the request for sanctions, blockade or other hostile measures against China and Hong Kong, it said.
His lawyer Derek Chan earlier urged the court to impose a sentence that would give his client some hope, adding that Wong wishes to take care of his parents after his release.
His friends said during his nearly six years in prison, Wong kept reading books and exercising, teaching himself guitar while maturing in his thinking.
To his supporters, Wong is a political star representing a younger generation born in the final years of Hong Kong's British colonial rule before the city's return to China in 1997.
Despite being held behind bars, Wong's influence appears to have remained a concern, at least for the pro-Beijing camp.
In September, a pro-Beijing newspaper report criticized a 2017 documentary about Wong on Netflix for "beautifying" his crimes. The city's security bureau told local media the government was taking follow-up action.
But the documentary then shot to the top of Netflix's popular chart in Hong Kong.
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