Hong Kong Activist Joshua Wong Sentenced to 10 More Years in Prison

As of Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026.

Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong was sentenced to 10 years in prison in his second national security case, according to an Associated Press news alert published Wednesday evening U.S. time. Wong, 30, is already in prison on an earlier national security conviction.

The charge and the plea

Wong was charged in 2025 with conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security, under the national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong, the AP reported. He pleaded guilty in September. The charge carries a possible sentence ranging from three years to life in prison, and a guilty plea typically reduces a sentence, according to the AP. Judge William Tam was scheduled to deliver the penalty.

Members of the public began lining up as early as Tuesday to get seats in the courtroom’s public gallery, the AP reported.

What prosecutors alleged

According to the AP, prosecutors said Wong and fellow activist Nathan Law agreed around 2016 to lobby internationally for democratic self-determination for Hong Kong. Before the security law took effect, the pair allegedly called for sanctions and other measures against Hong Kong and China. Wong met U.S. politicians Nancy Pelosi and Marco Rubio in 2016 and 2019, the AP noted.

After the law was enacted, prosecutors said, Law and others continued lobbying abroad, while Wong allegedly supported the effort from Hong Kong through foreign and social media, seeking sanctions, a blockade or other hostile measures.

His earlier sentence

Wong is already serving a sentence of four years and eight months in the city’s largest national security case, which was tied to an unofficial primary election. He pleaded guilty in that case as well. Before the new collusion charge, he had been expected to be released in January 2027, according to the AP.

His lawyer, Derek Chan, asked the court for a sentence that would give his client some hope, saying Wong wants to care for his parents after his release. Friends told the AP that during nearly six years in prison, Wong has kept reading, exercising and teaching himself guitar.

Competing views of the case

The AP reported sharply different views of Wong and the law used to prosecute him:

• Beijing views Wong as an anti-China figure who supports Hong Kong independence, which the AP said crosses its red line.
• Hong Kong authorities say the security law was crucial to restoring stability after the 2019 anti-government protests and that law enforcement actions were based on evidence.
• Supporters see Wong as a political figure who represents a younger generation born in the final years of British rule, before the 1997 handover to China.
• Legal observers, including Eric Lai, a research fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, said national security charges can be used repeatedly to keep a particular political prisoner jailed.

Observers told the AP the sentence shows authorities’ determination to keep prominent activists in prison and will further chill civic activism. One Hong Kong resident told the AP that Wong showed “big-picture thinking” as a teenager.

The wider context

After the 2019 protests, authorities reduced public choice in elections and arrested many leading activists, the AP reported. Some critical news outlets shut down, and dozens of civil society groups dissolved.

Wong’s case has also drawn attention online. In September, a pro-Beijing newspaper criticized a 2017 Netflix documentary about Wong for portraying his crimes too favorably, and the city’s security bureau said it was taking follow-up action. The documentary then rose to the top of Netflix’s popular chart in Hong Kong, according to the AP.

What comes next

The AP’s initial alert did not detail the judge’s reasoning or say how the new term will interact with the sentence Wong is already serving. Wong has spent nearly six years behind bars, and with the new 10-year term, his time in custody will extend well beyond the January 2027 release date he had been expected to reach.

Sources: The Associated Press (via The Durango Herald).