Hong Kong prominent democracy activist Joshua Wong charged under the Hong Kong National Security Law with “conspiracy to collude with a foreign country or external forces to endanger national security”; trial opens today

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On September 2, 2026, this outlet learned that today Joshua Wong pleaded guilty in a Hong Kong court to one charge under the National Security Law of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security”; the court will defer sentencing to another day.

Wong was previously sentenced to 4 years and 8 months in prison in Hong Kong’s “47-person case.” Including other cases, he has been detained for more than 2,100 days to date. After pleading guilty today to the latest national security case brought by prosecutors, Wong faces the prospect of a heavy sentence.

Joshua Wong biography: Born on October 13, 1996; English name Joshua Wong Chi-fung; Christian; nationality Chinese (Hong Kong), British national; nonpartisan 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 Hong Kong’s student movement thought; secretary-general of Demosisto; political prisoner detained in China.

From childhood, he participated in church activities with his parents, worked as a volunteer and enthusiastically served community public affairs; in 2014, he studied at Hong Kong Metropolitan University and graduated from the university with outstanding results in October 2020; on May 29, 2011, he and his secondary-school alumnus Ivan Lam Long-yin founded the student organization Scholarism. They organized student marches, rallies and other events many times to oppose the Hong Kong government’s brainwashing education aimed at making students support the Chinese Communist Party under the guise of moral and national education, thereby attracting 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. Because of his outstanding performance, he won widespread public praise and became the spark that triggered the full-scale outbreak across Hong Kong of the movement against “brainwashing education”;

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

On April 10, 2016, after founding Demosisto with Ivan Lam and others, advocating Hong Kong self-governance while not supporting Hong Kong independence, and stating at the same time that “if there is no democratic self-governance, there is only Hong Kong independence,” he became “someone who does not fit Beijing’s wishes”;

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

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

He appealed the sentence, which was reduced to two months on May 16, 2019; after being released from prison, he joined the “anti-extradition” movement again, demanding that the government explicitly withdraw the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance amendment bill and retract its erroneous designation of the million-person march on June 9 as a riot. He also stated that Carrie Lam was no longer qualified to remain chief executive because she had caused Hong Kong people to bleed, thereby making the Hong Kong government and the Chinese Communist Party authorities even more uneasy;

On August 13, 2019, as a large-scale gathering and protest was about to break out at Hong Kong International Airport, he livestreamed on Facebook, calling for the number of participants in the march to exceed one million, among other things. He was subsequently taken away by police on the streets on August 30 and charged by prosecutors with offenses including “inciting others to participate in an unauthorized assembly”;

On September 8, 2019, he was detained by police on the grounds of “breaching bail conditions” while preparing to travel to Germany to discuss the situation in Hong Kong; on October 29 of the same year, after registering to stand in the district council elections, he was deprived of the right to stand for election by Beijing’s “hard order”;

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 Demosisto and withdraw from Demosisto, stating that he would put his beliefs into practice in his personal capacity in the future; in June 2019, in connection with the case involving the surrounding of the Hong Kong Police Headquarters, he was detained again by police together with Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam. Although he was temporarily granted bail during that period, he was later remanded in custody and arrested again;

On November 23, 2020, the case involving the three of them opened at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts, where they faced three charges: “inciting others to participate in an unauthorized assembly,” “organizing an unauthorized assembly” and “knowingly participating in an unauthorized assembly.” They were sentenced separately on December 2 of the same year, with Wong receiving a sentence of 13 and a half months; he had earlier been sentenced to four months for the unauthorized assembly case in Causeway Bay on October 5. In 2021, he was sentenced again by the Hong Kong District Court to 10 months for the “unauthorized assembly” case involving the June 4 candlelight vigil; following an appeal, this was reduced to eight months, with the terms of the two sentences served separately.

In March 2022, he completed his prison sentence, but was again charged over his previous participation in the 2020 Legislative Council primary, with his conduct alleged to have violated the Hong Kong National Security Law’s offense of “subversion of state power.” 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 to three months by the Hong Kong High Court 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.” He is currently serving his sentence at Stanley Prison in Hong Kong.

This outlet will continue to follow Joshua Wong’s situation.