Hong Kong pro-democracy figure Joshua Wong sentenced to another 10 years today

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) November 5, 2026 — We learned today that a Hong Kong court sentenced Joshua Wong to 10 years in prison for “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces.” Two months and two days will run concurrently with his sentence in the earlier “47-person case,” adding 9 years and 10 months to his prison term. Wong has been detained for 2,173 days and had been expected to be released in January 2027. Following this sentence, he is expected to complete his sentence in November 2036.

Joshua Wong’s biography: Born October 13, 1996; English name Joshua Wong Chi-fung; Christian; Chinese (Hong Kong) nationality and British national; unaffiliated pro-democracy figure; named one of the 25 most influential teenagers of 2014 by the US magazine Time; leader of the “Umbrella Movement”; convener of the Hong Kong student movement Demosistō and secretary-general of Demosistō; political prisoner in China.

From a young age, he took part in church activities with his parents, volunteered, and was enthusiastic about serving in community affairs; in 2014, he studied at the Open University of Hong Kong and graduated from the university with excellent results in October 2020; on May 29, 2011, he and his secondary school classmate Ivan Lam established the student group Scholarism; he organized student marches, rallies, and other events on multiple occasions to oppose the Hong Kong government’s use of moral and national education to indoctrinate students into supporting the Chinese Communist Party, drawing widespread attention from all sectors of society;

On July 15, 2012, he was invited to appear on City Forum, where he debated the national education issue with other guests; his strong performance won widespread public praise and became the spark that set off the full-scale movement against “brainwashing education” across Hong Kong;

On September 26, 2014, he was arrested by police for taking part in the Umbrella Movement and leading students in a “Occupy Central with Love and Peace” class boycott rally, and was later released on bail;

On April 10, 2016, he established Demosistō with Ivan Lam and others, advocating Hong Kong autonomy and not supporting Hong Kong independence, while also stating, “If there is no democratic autonomy, the only choice is Hong Kong independence,” making him “someone who does not suit Beijing’s wishes”;

On August 17, 2017, he was arrested again over the recapture of Civic Square and sentenced by the Hong Kong High Court to six months for “unlawful assembly”;

On January 17, 2018, the court also sentenced him to three months for “criminal contempt of court”;

He appealed the sentence, and on May 16, 2019, it was reduced to two months; after his release, he joined the “anti-extradition” movement, calling on the government to explicitly withdraw the extradition bill and retract its erroneous characterization of the June 9 million-person march as a riot; he also said that Chief Executive Carrie Lam no longer had the qualifications to remain in office because she had caused Hong Kong people to bleed, further unsettling the Hong Kong government and the Chinese Communist Party authorities;

On August 13, 2019, with a large-scale gathering and protest at Hong Kong International Airport imminent, he livestreamed on Facebook and called for the march’s attendance to exceed one million; he was then taken away by police on the street on August 30, and prosecutors charged him with, among other things, “inciting others to take part in an unauthorized assembly”;

On September 8, 2019, he was detained by police on the grounds of “breaching bail conditions” as he was preparing to travel to Germany to discuss the situation in Hong Kong; on October 29 of the same year, after registering as a candidate in the District Council election, he was stripped of his right to run by a “hard order” from Beijing;

On June 30, 2020, after China’s National People’s Congress passed the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law, he was forced to announce his resignation as secretary-general of Demosistō and his departure from the organization, stating that he would continue to put his beliefs into practice in a personal capacity; in June 2019, over the case involving the besieging of Hong Kong police headquarters, he, Agnes Chow, and Ivan Lam were detained again by police; although they were initially granted bail, he was later remanded in custody again;

On November 23, 2020, the case against the three went to trial at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on three charges: “inciting others to take part in an unauthorized assembly,” “organizing an unauthorized assembly,” and “knowingly taking part in an unauthorized assembly”; they were sentenced separately on December 2 that year, with him receiving 13 and a half months; he had earlier been sentenced to four months over the October 5 Causeway Bay unlawful assembly case, and in 2021 he was sentenced again by the Hong Kong District Court to 10 months over the “unauthorized assembly” case involving the June 4 candlelight vigil; following an appeal, this was reduced to eight months, and the sentences in the two cases were served separately.

In March 2022, he completed his sentence, but was accused again over his participation in the 2020 Legislative Council primary, with his conduct alleged to have violated the Hong Kong National Security Law’s “subversion of state power” offense; he therefore remained in Stanley Prison awaiting further trial; on April 17, 2023, after being accused of “disclosing police officers’ personal information,” he was sentenced by the Hong Kong High Court to three months for “contempt of court”;

On November 19, 2024, the 47-person subversion case was sentenced collectively at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts, and he was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison for “conspiracy to subvert state power.”

In September 2026, he pleaded guilty to another national security offense, “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security.” On November 5, 2026, we learned that a Hong Kong court sentenced Joshua Wong to 10 years in prison for “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces.” Two months and two days will run concurrently with his sentence in the earlier “47-person case,” adding 9 years and 10 months to his prison term. Wong has been detained for 2,173 days and had been expected to be released in January 2027. Following this sentence, he is expected to complete his sentence in November 2036. He is currently serving his sentence at Hong Kong’s Stanley Prison.