Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong sentenced to 10 years for foreign collusion

Joshua Wong, the Hong Kong pro-democracy activist who became known around the world during the city's protest movements, has been given a 10-year prison sentence after admitting a charge of conspiring to collude with foreign forces — a second national security conviction that keeps him in prison well beyond the release date he had been expecting.

Europe Unfolded Newsroom — breaking world news and major developments, reported as they are confirmed.

Key points

A Hong Kong court has sentenced Joshua Wong, 30, to 10 years in prison for conspiring to collude with foreign forces, his second conviction under the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020.
Wong pleaded guilty in September to the charge, which prosecutors said involved conspiring with self-exiled activist Nathan Law and others in 2020 to seek sanctions and blockades against Hong Kong and China.
He has spent almost six years in jail and had been expected to be freed in January, at the end of a four-year-and-eight-month sentence for subversion; his lawyer had argued for a term of three to 10 years, citing time already served.
Authorities said his international lobbying began as early as 2016, when he promoted a bill that would let the US president impose sanctions over human rights violations in Hong Kong, and that he joined a delegation to Washington in 2019.
Wong is the only person from the Hong Kong 47 group of pro-democracy figures to have been charged twice under the security law, Channel News Asia reports; rights groups have described the collusion charge as an attempt to keep him behind bars.

A Hong Kong court has sentenced Joshua Wong to 10 years in prison, extending the jail time of one of the city's best-known democracy activists far beyond the release he had been counting on. Wong, who turned 30 behind bars last month, admitted the collusion charge in September, and the sentence was handed down at a hearing on Thursday morning, 5 November, by High Court Judge William Tam, according to the court diary reported by Reuters.

Hong Kong Free Press reports that the sentence is Wong's second conviction under the national security law that Beijing inserted into Hong Kong's mini-constitution in June 2020, after a year of pro-democracy protests. The law criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts, and gave police sweeping new powers. The authorities say it restored stability to the city; critics, including trade partners, the United Nations and non-governmental organisations, have challenged it, Hong Kong Free Press notes.

The key figures

Key figures
Measure	Figure	Source
Sentence for foreign collusion	10 years	Hong Kong Free Press; Channel News Asia
Wong's age	30	Channel News Asia
Time already spent in jail	Almost six years	Channel News Asia
Previous subversion sentence	Four years and eight months	Channel News Asia
Release previously expected	January	Channel News Asia
Term Wong's lawyer argued for	Three to 10 years, citing time served	Channel News Asia
New charge brought	June 2025; guilty plea in September	Channel News Asia

What the case was about

Prosecutors said Wong conspired with Law and other unnamed people in 2020 to ask foreign countries, institutions and individuals to impose sanctions or blockades, or to take other hostile action, against Hong Kong or China, Hong Kong Free Press reports. The two men co-founded the now-disbanded pro-democracy party Demosisto, and prosecutors said they pursued what was described as an "international battlefront" after the 2019 protests, lobbying for legislation such as the United States' Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.

Joshua Wong in 2019. File photo. Photo: Studio Incendo / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Source file · Licence

Channel News Asia reports that the authorities said Wong's international lobbying began as early as 2016, when he promoted the bill that would allow the US president to impose sanctions in response to human rights violations in the city, and that in 2019, during Hong Kong's large and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests, he was part of a delegation to the United States to lobby for the bill, which eventually passed. When Beijing imposed the sweeping national security law the following year, opposition groups disbanded and activists fled the city; Wong at the time vowed to "continue to defend my home — Hong Kong — until they silence me", Channel News Asia reports.

Joshua Wong with Senator Bob Menendez and Nathan Law at the US Senate in 2019 — Joshua Wong with Senator Bob Menendez and Nathan Law in 2019. File photo. Photo: Office of Senator Bob Menendez / Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Source file · Licence

Wong first rose to prominence in Hong Kong's 2014 protests, known as the Umbrella Movement, and has been in and out of jail since 2017 over protest-related prosecutions, Channel News Asia reports. He has been held by the authorities since November 2020, when he pleaded guilty to inciting and organising an unauthorised assembly outside police headquarters during the 2019 protests, Hong Kong Free Press reports. In the landmark national security trial known as the Hong Kong 47, he pleaded guilty to conspiring to subvert state power, and was sentenced in 2024 to four years and eight months, a term that was due to end with his expected release in January.

What happens next

What is not yet clear from the first reports is whether Wong will appeal, and how the new sentence interacts in practice with the time he has already served — his lawyer's argument for a three-to-10-year term rested on that time, and the court chose the top of that range. A friend of the activist, Louis Lee, told Channel News Asia that Wong remained energetic behind bars but was sometimes worried and nervous about the sentencing, and a long-time supporter, Margaret Chan, 61, said he would be in his middle age by the time he is released. Europe Unfolded will report any appeal, and any reaction from governments and rights groups, as they are confirmed.

Updates & corrections

Published 5 November 2026.

No updates or corrections have been made to this article since publication.

Sources

Hong Kong Free Press, "HK activist Joshua Wong sentenced to 10 years for foreign collusion", 5 November 2026, on the 10-year sentence, the guilty plea, the alleged 2020 conspiracy with Nathan Law and others to seek sanctions and blockades, the Demosisto "international battlefront" and lobbying for the US Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, Wong's detention since November 2020, and his 2024 subversion sentence: hongkongfp.com
Channel News Asia, "Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong sentenced to 10 more years for collusion", 5 November 2026, on the 10-year sentence extending Wong's term beyond almost six years already served, his age of 30, the expected January release after a four-year-and-eight-month subversion sentence, the June 2025 charge and September guilty plea, the lawyer's three-to-10-year argument, the lobbying history from 2016 and the 2019 Washington delegation, Wong being the only Hong Kong 47 defendant charged twice, and the remarks from Louis Lee and Margaret Chan: channelnewsasia.com
Reuters, "Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong set to be sentenced on national security charge", 4 November 2026, via AsiaOne, on the hearing before High Court Judge William Tam at 9.30am Hong Kong time, the collusion charge carrying a possible life sentence, and the alleged conspiracy between July and November 2020: asiaone.com
New Straits Times, "Hong Kong court sentences activist Joshua Wong to 10 years on national security charge", 5 November 2026, corroborating the 10-year sentence for collusion with foreign entities under the national security law: nst.com.my

If you spot an error, see our Corrections Policy.