Hong Kong Activist Joshua Wong Pleads Guilty to Foreign Collusion Charge
Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong pleads guilty to conspiring with foreign forces, facing life in prison in his second national security case.
Joshua Wong, a prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activist, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security. The charge, brought under the city's Beijing-imposed national security law, carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, with sentencing expected at a later date.
This marks the second time the 29-year-old has been prosecuted under the 2020 security legislation, which was introduced following the large-scale anti-government protests of 2019. Wong is currently serving a four-year-and-eight-month sentence after pleading guilty in an earlier national security case linked to an unofficial primary election. He had been expected to be released in January before his arrest in June on the collusion-related offense.
Prosecutors accused Wong of conspiring with fellow activist Nathan Law and others between July 1 and November 23, 2020, to solicit foreign governments, institutions, or individuals to impose sanctions, blockades, or other hostile actions against Hong Kong or China. The offense is punishable by three to ten years in prison, or life imprisonment if deemed grave.
Wong first gained prominence in 2012 as a high school student protesting the introduction of national education. He later became an international figure as a leader of the 2014 Occupy Movement and co-founded the political party Demosisto in 2016 with Law, who became the city's youngest lawmaker that year. During the 2019 protests, Wong sought overseas support for the movement, including from the United States, drawing criticism from Beijing for allegedly "begging for interference."
Demosisto disbanded when the security law took effect. Many other activists, including media tycoon Jimmy Lai, have been jailed under the same legislation, while others have fled abroad. Hong Kong authorities have offered rewards of 1 million Hong Kong dollars (about $127,600) for information leading to the arrests of Law and other overseas-based activists.