{"id":3862,"date":"2026-11-05T14:03:50","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T09:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3862"},"modified":"2026-11-05T14:03:50","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T09:03:50","slug":"hong-kong-activist-joshua-wong-sentenced-to-10-years-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3862","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong sentenced to 10 years in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in jail on \u200ba charge of collusion with foreign entities under the city\u2019s national security law.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wong was among a group of young people whose protest efforts have effectively \u200cbeen outlawed by a national security law<\/a> imposed in 2020, after violent demonstrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe punishment must fit the gravity of the crime,\u201d High Court Judge William Tam told a packed courtroom while delivering a sentence shorter than the maximum penalty of life in jail.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is also necessary for the court to express the community\u2019s abhorrence of the defendant\u2019s scheme and acts with others to \u200bcollude with foreign forces or external elements to endanger national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wong, now 30, was accused of conspiring with self-exiled activist Nathan Law and others to ask foreign countries, \u200bbodies, or individuals outside China to impose sanctions or blockades, or engage in other hostile activities against the government.<\/p>\n

He pleaded guilty<\/a> to the \u2060charge in September.<\/p>\n

Wearing a blue shirt and dark-framed glasses, with a short back-and-sides haircut, Wong, flanked by three guards, repeatedly nodded to a public gallery ahead of the sentencing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never advocated Hong Kong independence, nor have I ever promoted the \u2018collapse of China\u2019 or regime change,\u201d Wong said during the trial\u2019s mitigation phase.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have also never received foreign funding or spent \u200bmoney to hire foreign political consultants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wong, repeatedly detained for his role in organising rallies, said he later realised he had been mistaken in his belief that his activities were \u200bwithin the bounds of the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese harsh sentences have left many Hong Kong people deeply fearful,\u201d said housewife ET Wong, one of the dozens who packed public galleries and stood outside court to support \u200cWong.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t \u2060know what actions might break the law, what we say might break the law, what we write or what we draw. We just don\u2019t know anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wong has been in detention since November 2020, when he pleaded guilty to inciting and organising an unauthorised anti-government assembly during protests that roiled the Asian financial hub in 2019. His release had been due next January.<\/p>\n

Beijing said the law was necessary to stabilise the city.<\/p>\n

Wong was not an \u201cenemy\u201d, but he needed to learn to respect the law and \u201cunderstand his own country\u201d, said Steve Li, chief superintendent of \u200bthe national security department.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Meetings with foreign politicians<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Wong\u2019s meetings with \u200bpoliticians from the United States, Europe and \u2060elsewhere have drawn the wrath of Beijing, which calls him a \u201cblack hand\u201d of foreign forces.<\/p>\n

The offences took place between July 1 and November 23, 2020, a time when Hong Kong was facing a \u201cvery high risk\u201d to national security and the rule of law, Tam said.<\/p>\n

At a \u200bSeptember hearing, the prosecution highlighted an international media and political campaign by Demosisto, a now-disbanded political party of \u200bwhich Wong was a leader\u2060, that sought to bring sanctions and other hostile actions on Hong Kong and China in 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n

Those efforts included lobbying trips to Washington DC and meetings with Nancy Pelosi, then the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was a senator at the time.<\/p>\n

The group at one point also backed a referendum on Hong Kong\u2019s sovereignty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in jail on \u200ba charge of collusion with foreign entities under the city\u2019s national security law. Wong was among a group of young people whose protest efforts have effectively \u200cbeen outlawed by a national security law imposed in 2020, after violent demonstrations. \u201cThe punishment must fit the gravity of the crime,\u201d High Court Judge William Tam told a packed courtroom while delivering a sentence shorter than the maximum penalty of life in jail. \u201cIt is also necessary for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}