Hong Kong's High Court sentenced pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong to 10 years in prison on Thursday. The 30-year-old pleaded guilty in September to foreign collusion under a Beijing-imposed national security law. This marks Wong's second conviction under the law, extending his incarceration just two months before he was due to be freed.
Wong was accused of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, specifically working with exiled activist Nathan Law to urge foreign powers to impose blockades, sanctions, or other hostile measures against China. Having been imprisoned since 2020, Wong is the only activist in Hong Kong to be prosecuted twice under the national security law.
Wong rose to international prominence as the teenage face of the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests and has been in and out of jail since 2017. Rights groups and critics have decried the collusion charge as a political weapon and a deliberate attempt by authorities to keep him incarcerated, reflecting a broader crackdown on the city's once-thriving pro-democracy movement.