Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, 30, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday after being found guilty in a national security case. He pleaded guilty in September to a charge of foreign collusion, making him the second time he has been convicted under the national security law.
Wong is the only activist in Hong Kong to have been prosecuted twice under the legislation. He has been in custody since 2020. The authorities accuse him of working with Nathan Law, an exiled activist, and of allegedly urging foreign governments to impose sanctions or take other hostile measures against China.
Wong rose to international prominence as a teenager, when he became the face of the 2014 pro-democracy protests that became known as the Umbrella Movement. Those demonstrations called for greater democratic freedoms in the territory, and Wong went on to become one of the best-known figures of the city's protest movement.
Critics of the national security law say it has been used to silence political opposition in Hong Kong. Supporters of the law argue that it is necessary to restore stability after the large-scale protests of 2019 and to protect national security. The reasoning behind the sentencing court's decision has not been detailed in the reporting available so far, so the full basis for the length of the term remains unclear.
The sentence marks a further step in the prosecution of the city's democracy figures since the national security law was introduced. Wong's case has drawn attention from rights groups and observers who follow the territory's political situation closely, and the outcome is likely to be watched as an indication of how the law is applied to activists who have spent years in the public eye.
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