The case against prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, accused under the Hong Kong National Security Law of “conspiracy to collude with a foreign country or with external forces to endanger national security,” has completed committal proceedings to the Hong Kong High Court; Joshua Wong remains in custody

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On May 15, 2026, this outlet learned that on May 14, 2026, the case against Joshua Wong, who was accused of allegedly violating the Hong Kong National Security Law by committing “conspiracy to collude with a foreign country or with external forces to endanger national security,” completed committal proceedings to the Hong Kong High Court, and Joshua Wong was remanded in custody.

On June 6, 2025, 28-year-old prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong was arrested again in prison and accused of allegedly violating the Hong Kong National Security Law by committing “conspiracy to collude with a foreign country or with external forces to endanger national security.” In the earlier case involving 47 people, he was sentenced in 2024 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. He is the second person to be prosecuted in Hong Kong for “colluding with foreign forces,” after Next Digital founder Jimmy Lai.

Biography of Joshua Wong: Born on October 13, 1996, English name Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Christian, Chinese nationality (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,” convenor of the Hong Kong student movement, secretary-general of Scholarism, and a Chinese political prisoner in detention.

From childhood, he participated in church activities with his parents, volunteered, and enthusiastically served the community in public affairs; in 2014, he attended the Open University of Hong Kong and graduated from the university with outstanding results in October 2020; on May 29, 2011, he and secondary-school alumnus Ivan Lam Long-yin founded the student organisation “Scholarism,” and organised student marches, rallies and other events on multiple occasions 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 attend City Forum, where he debated other guests on the issue of national education. His outstanding performance earned widespread public praise and became the trigger for the full-scale outbreak across Hong Kong of the movement opposing “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, he became an “individual disliked by Beijing” after founding Demosistō with Ivan Lam Long-yin and others, advocating Hong Kong self-determination while not supporting Hong Kong independence, while also stating, “Without democratic self-determination, the only choice is Hong Kong independence”;

On August 17, 2017, he was arrested again over the Civic Square reoccupation incident and 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 decision, and on May 16, 2019, his sentence was reduced to two months; after his release, he joined the “anti-extradition” movement, calling on the government to clearly withdraw the extradition bill amendment and to retract the erroneous designation of the million-person march on June 9 as a riot. He also said that Carrie Lam was no longer qualified to serve as chief executive because she had caused Hong Kong people to bleed, 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 marchers to exceed one million, among other things. He was subsequently taken away by police on the street on August 30 and charged by prosecutors with allegedly “inciting others to participate in an unauthorised assembly” and other offences;

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 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 leave the organisation, stating that he would pursue his beliefs in an individual capacity from then on; in June 2019, because of the case involving the siege of the Hong Kong Police Headquarters, he was detained again by police together with Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam Long-yin. Although he was temporarily granted bail during that period, he was later remanded in custody again;

On November 23, 2020, the case involving the three was heard at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on three charges: “inciting others to participate in an unauthorised assembly,” “organising an unauthorised assembly,” and “knowingly participating in an unauthorised assembly.” They were sentenced separately on December 2 of the same year, with him receiving a sentence of 13 and a half months; he had earlier been sentenced to four months for the unlawful 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 “unauthorised assembly” case involving the June 4 candlelight vigil. Following an appeal, this was reduced to eight months, with the sentences from the two convictions served separately.

In March 2022, he completed his prison sentence, but was accused again over his participation in the 2020 Legislative Council primary election, with the allegation that his actions violated the Hong Kong National Security Law’s offence of “subversion of state power.” He therefore still had to remain at Stanley Prison awaiting further trial; on April 17, 2023, after being accused of “disclosing police officers’ personal information,” he was sentenced to three months in prison by the Hong Kong High Court for “contempt of court”;

On November 19, 2024, the 47-person subversion case was adjudicated 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.