Hong Kong democracy campaigner Joshua Wong handed another 10 years in jail

By Chris Lau, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN) — Joshua Wong, once a teenage figurehead of Hong Kong’s democracy movement, faces the prospect of entering middle age in prison, after a court Thursday meted out a 10-year sentence over a second national security conviction.

Wong became a prominent activist when he was a teenager, and entered prison for the first time at 23. He turned 30 last month.

In September, he pleaded guilty to conspiring with fellow activists to invite foreign sanctions against China and Hong Kong in 2020 – the year Beijing introduced the city’s National Security Law (NSL), which led to a crackdown on dissent, the shuttering of vocal news outlets, and the dissolution of civic groups.

Wong is already serving 4 years and 8 months in prison, after pleading guilty in a landmark subversion trial in 2024. He was due for release in January.

Beijing imposed the NSL on Hong Kong after huge and often violent pro-democracy protests convulsed the international financial hub in 2019.

The law tightened Beijing’s grip on the former British colony. Both the Hong Kong and Chinese governments say it has helped restore stability, but rights groups say the law has stifled dissent and made any criticism of the government risky.

Calling Wong’s case “grave,” Judge William Tam said the activist conspired with others to call for foreign sanctions at a time when Hong Kong was dealing with its own social turmoil – referring to the anti-government protests.

After the NSL came in, the judge said, Wong and his conspirators “continued to promote such calls not only through their own social media accounts but also via prominent news media or outlets in the West, reaching both local and international audience.”

“Whilst it is a very heavy sentence on the defendant, the punishment must fit the gravity of the crime committed,” he said, adding that it’s “also necessary for this court to express the community’s abhorrence” at Wong’s actions.

In his mitigation letter, viewed by CNN, Wong wrote that his activism “was never driven by hatred.”

He’s been spending his spare time in jail studying the law and keeping abreast of technological advances, including artificial intelligence, he said.

“Yet none of my aspirations for the future is more important than my solemn wish to care for my ageing parents once I complete my sentence,” he wrote.

China’s leaders have previously labeled Wong and other activists “separatists.”

In the latest case, prosecutors accused Wong of conspiring with others to lobby the United States and other countries to sanction China and Hong Kong, prior to the NSL’s imposition.

This, they said, happened through social media campaigning, as well as meetings with US politicians, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and then Senator Marco Rubio, now the US secretary of state.

The lobbying continued after the law was enacted, prosecutors said, with the US sanctioning more than a dozen Hong Kong and Chinese officials after 2020.

A Hong Kong government spokesperson earlier dismissed international criticism of Wong’s prosecution.

“The lawful exercise of free speech must not be conflated with taking actions to collude with a foreign country to impose ‘sanctions’ to harm one’s own country,” they said in September.

Face of a movement

Ahead of the sentencing Thursday morning, police had heightened security outside the court near Hong Kong’s financial district, where dozens of people had camped out – some for two nights – to catch a glimpse of one of the city’s most famous prisoners.

Among them was housewife ET Wong, who said she had started following Wong’s campaigning when he was still an adolescent.

“He chose a difficult path for the future, human rights and student movements of Hong Kong,” she said. “He should not have been in jail for one single day.”

Activist Lui Yuk-lin held a card with Wong’s name on it as she entered the building, lamenting the fate of the former teen figurehead.

“He’s a child in my heart,” she said.

When he was led into court, Wong, wearing a navy shirt and his usual black-framed glasses, nodded to supporters in the public gallery. Given the limited space, well-wishers took turns filing through the gallery.

Letters from prison

Weeks after pleading guilty to his second national security charge in September, Wong – who’s been behind bars since 2020 – told his friend in a letter that he had been feeling “so-so.”

“[It’s] very difficult to describe the feeling and thought,” Wong wrote in the letter, shared with CNN by his friend.

But the former activist also encouraged his friend to stay positive, citing a verse from the Bible.

“There is no fear in love,” Wong wrote, quoting from The First Epistle of John, adding that the fear he had experienced over the past few years made him appreciate his love for his friends and the city even more.

Louis Lee, who shared his exchanges with Wong, said they discussed everything from music to their favourite Japanese anime, and would reminiscence about good times.

Reading Wong’s letters sometimes brought Lee to tears.

“As a friend, I miss him so much and I long to see the day when he’s out of the prison,” Lee said.

The skinny, bespectacled activist with a knack for fiery public speaking rose to prominence in 2012 at the age of 15, leading sit-in protests with his friends to successfully overturn a government plan to introduce Chinese civic education to the city’s schools.

At the time, critics feared the proposed curriculum amounted to propaganda by Beijing. Under the NSL, it’s now compulsory in every school.

Two years later, Wong became one of the key leaders of the city’s Umbrella Movement protests that rallied thousands of predominantly young people to the streets to call for greater democracy by blocking major thoroughfares for 79 straight days.

In 2016, he co-founded pro-democracy party Demosisto, which successfully sent co-founder Nathan Law to the city’s Legislative Council as its youngest member (Wong was too young to run.) The party announced its disbandment hours after Beijing passed the NSL, with Law revealing days later he had left Hong Kong.

Law is now one of dozens of democracy activists overseas wanted by Hong Kong’s national security police, and who have had a cash bounty put on them.

Authorities disqualified Wong when he tried to run again in 2020. He was later arrested and charged along with dozens of others for taking part in unofficial primaries held to screen candidates for Legislative Council elections.

In what was widely known as the “47 case,” after the number of opposition figures on trial, prosecutors said Wong and others subverted the Hong Kong government in 2020 by engaging in a primary election – a common practice in many democracies.

At the time, Hong Kong authorities said the primary vote was a “vicious plot” intended to “paralyze the government and undermine state power,” and accused those who took part of intending to use their mandate to block legislation indiscriminately.

Of the 47, most pleaded guilty while 14 were convicted and sentenced to up to 10 years in prison, after a 2024 trial that marked the single largest prosecution of pro-democracy activists under the NSL. Two were acquitted.

Since the NSL came into effect, civil groups have disbanded, and some independent media outlets have been shut down. The city’s legislature now comprises only pro-Beijing loyalists, while most pro-democracy figures are either in jail or in exile overseas.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.