Click to expand Image Joshua Wong speaks to protesters near the Legislative Council in Hong Kong, June 17, 2019.  © 2019 Kin Cheung/AP Photo  (Tokyo) – The Hong Kong High Court on November 5, 2026, sentenced Joshua Wong, a well-known democracy activist, to 10 years in prison on baseless national security charges, Human Rights Watch said today. Two months of the sentence will run concurrently with his current national security sentence. Wong has been in custody since November 2020, when he was 24, and faces imprisonment until late 2036, when he will be 40.The Hong Kong government should immediately and unconditionally release Wong. Foreign governments should denounce the sentences against him and other wrongfully detained pro-democracy activists and impose targeted sanctions on officials responsible for Hong Kong’s growing repression.“The harsh sentence on baseless charges against Joshua Wong is cruel and unjust,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Young people promoting social change are an asset for any vibrant society, but the Hong Kong government puts them behind bars.”To keep Hong Kong society subdued, and to reduce the chance of an international outcry, the Hong Kong government appears to have adopted the tactic of stacking charges against influential pro-democracy leaders to ensure their prolonged detention, Human Rights Watch said. Other notable Hong Kong figures who have faced similar tactics include Jimmy Lai, founder of Apple Daily, and veteran democracy activists Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho.The court sentenced Wong, 30, under the National Security Law for “conspiring to collude with foreign forces.” The authorities accused him of “conspiring” with the activist Nathan Law and other “unknown” individuals between 2016 and November 2020 to urge foreign governments to sanction Hong Kong and Chinese government officials as they advocated for Hong Kong’s “democratic self-determination.” The prosecution relied heavily on the international lobbying and media advocacy that Wong and Demosisto, the political party Wong co-founded in 2016, carried out before the National Security Law took effect. Wong initiated online petitions, spoke to international media, and met with foreign officials to draw attention to human rights abuses in Hong Kong. He urged governments to sanction Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible for abuses and to stop selling weapons to Hong Kong police that they use to carry out rights violations.Wong had mostly stopped these activities before the National Security Law became effective. Demosisto disbanded on June 30, 2020, and Wong resigned from the group. However, the government quoted social media posts by Wong as ostensible evidence that his alleged “conspiracy” with Law to commit “foreign collusion” continued after the law took effect. In these posts, Wong said he “would not change his views” and that he would “continue to seek support from the international community” in his personal capacity, while Law and others abroad would continue their international advocacy.The government also cited Wong’s subsequent opinion pieces and media interviews, though none directly called for sanctions, which the National Security Law specifically prohibits. It also cited his reposts of Law’s posts broadly calling for sanctions against Chinese officials and Hong Kong police.The court ruled that Wong’s offense was of a “grave nature.” The National Security Law sets prison terms of 3 to 10 years for “foreign collusion,” or 10 years to life for offenses deemed to be of a “grave nature.” Wong formally pleaded guilty on September 2. A guilty plea normally results in a one-third sentence reduction. But a sentence reduction cannot bring the term below the statutory minimum.Because of reporting restrictions on pretrial committal proceedings, when a magistrate determines whether to send a case to a higher court for trial, the public did not know the details of the accusations against Wong until the formal plea. The government enacted a law in 2024 to enable the court, on national security grounds, to deny the defendant’s right to ask the court to lift restrictions on reporting about the case.By restricting media reporting on the pretrial proceedings in national security cases, the government can control the narrative and undermine the fundamental legal principle of open justice.Since Beijing imposed the National Security Law on Hong Kong in June 2020, Hong Kong authorities have used the new legal regime—along with existing laws—to rapidly dismantle civil society and detain, imprison, or force into exile hundreds of activists and government critics.Wong has been in custody since November 2020, when he pleaded guilty to two charges of organizing and inciting an unauthorized assembly linked to the 2019 citywide protest movement. After that, he pleaded guilty to five more charges on separate occasions, including for violating an anti-mask law, participating in an unauthorized vigil for the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, and breaching a court ban to disclose a police officer’s personal information.While serving these sentences, Wong was charged with two national security offenses, which carry far harsher penalties. In January 2021, Wong was charged with “conspiring to commit subversion” for participating in an unofficial democratic primary in 2020 and sentenced to another four years and eight months in prison. Before Wong could complete these sentences, the authorities brought the “foreign collusion” charge against him in June 2025, ensuring that he would remain in prison.Wong became one of Hong Kong’s best-known democracy activists as a teenager, after leading a massive 2012 protest against a government educational curriculum widely seen as political indoctrination. He became the global face of Hong Kong’s democracy movement during the 2014 Umbrella Movement and co-founded Demosisto with Law and others in 2016. The party disbanded on June 30, 2020, hours before the National Security Law came into effect.The National Security Law’s sweeping provisions have been used to punish peaceful protest and expression. Its use against Wong and others violates the right to freedom of expression under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which is incorporated into Hong Kong law through the city’s de facto constitution, the Basic Law, and the Bill of Rights Ordinance.“Beijing has paid no real price for its increasing repression in Hong Kong,” Pearson said. “Concerned governments should press for the release of Wong and other activists, impose targeted sanctions against implicated officials, and review their relationship with China more broadly in light of the deepening abuses.”