Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong has been sentenced to 10 additional years in prison after being found guilty of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the territory’s national security law.
The 30-year-old activist was sentenced on Thursday, November 5, 2026, by Hong Kong’s High Court after pleading guilty to the charge in September.
Wong was accused of working with self-exiled activist Nathan Law and others to persuade foreign governments and organisations to impose sanctions, blockades and other hostile measures against China and Hong Kong.According to the prosecution, Wong and his associates continued their international lobbying activities after Beijing introduced the National Security Law in June 2020.
Delivering the judgment, High Court Judge William Tam described the offence as grave and said the court considered 13 years an appropriate starting point for the sentence.
However, the judge reduced the term to 10 years, taking into account Wong’s guilty plea and other mitigating factors.
Wong has been in detention since November 2020 and was already serving a four-year-and-eight-month prison sentence for conspiracy to commit subversion over his involvement in an unofficial democratic primary election in 2020. He had been expected to regain his freedom in January 2027 before the latest conviction.
The new sentence means he is expected to remain behind bars until late 2036, when he will be about 40 years old. Part of the new sentence will run concurrently with his existing prison term.
Wong first gained international recognition as a teenage activist during Hong Kong’s 2014 Umbrella Movement, which called for greater democratic freedoms and electoral reforms. He later became one of the most recognisable figures in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, particularly during the massive anti-government demonstrations in 2019.
His latest sentencing has attracted criticism from international governments and human rights organisations.
The United States consulate in Hong Kong condemned the additional prison term and called for his immediate release.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International also criticised the decision, arguing that Hong Kong’s national security legislation was being used to suppress political opposition and punish peaceful activism. However, Chinese and Hong Kong authorities maintain that the national security law is necessary to protect national security and maintain stability in the territory.
Wong’s latest sentence represents another major development in the crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, with several prominent activists either imprisoned or living in exile.
