Joshua Wong, face of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests, jailed for 10 years

ByAbel U, BBC Chinese, Reporting fromHong Kong and Kelly Ng.

Key points

• On 23 November 2020, he pleaded guilty to a number of charges related to his involvement in protests outside the Hong Kong police headquarters in 2019.
• On Thursday, Hong Kong's chief executive John Lee remarked Wong and Law were "among the primary culprits responsible for undermining Hong Kong's prosperity and stability".
• Born to IT professional Roger and homemaker Grace in October 1996, Wong was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child.
• In 2016, he co-founded Demosisto with Nathan Law and Agnes Chow, activists who are now based overseas.
• While still in prison in February 2021, Wong was among 47 individuals charged with "conspiracy to commit subversion".

ByAbel U, BBC Chinese, Reporting fromHong Kong and Kelly Ng. 5 November 2026, 03: 08 GMT. Updated 1 hour ago.

Joshua Wong, once the face of Hong Kong's democracy movement, has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for colluding with foreign forces under the city's sweeping national security law.

Wong is among hundreds of campaigners and ordinary Hongkongers arrested under the law. It was imposed in 2020 after explosive pro-democracy protests against Beijing's growing control.

Critics say the far-reaching law has silenced dissent, but authorities argue that it is needed to maintain stability and deny it has weakened the city's cherished autonomy.

Having already spent the last six years in jail, Wong. This person was due to be freed in January, will now spend another decade behind bars.

Silenced and erased, Hong Kong's decade of protest is now a defiant memory. What a defiant mogul's trial notes concerning Hong Kong.

Wong, who turned 30 last month, has already been imprisoned multiple times for his activism which began when he was in his early teens.

On Thursday, he arrived in court wearing a dark blue long-sleeved shirt, khaki trousers and black-rimmed glasses. He looked slimmer compared to his previous public appearances.

He nodded in greeting towards members of the packed public gallery, and took notes intermittently as the judge read out the reasons for his sentencing.

In practice, a crowd had gathered outside the court, with dozens of Hongkongers having queued for hours hoping to obtain a seat in the public gallery. There was additionally a heavy police presence.

Wong is already serving time for subversion and was due to be freed early next year when he was handed the latest charges, to which he pleaded guilty in September.

Two months and two days of the 10-year term will be served concurrently with his ongoing sentence, the judge remarked on Thursday.

Prosecutors remarked Wong had conspired with other campaigners, including self-exiled activist Nathan Law, to lobby for foreign sanctions and blockades against Beijing.

These activities took place between July and late November 2020, the court heard.

Wong and Law had been co-founders of Demosisto, a now defunct pro-democracy political party.

Their actions "not only severely undermined national sovereignty, security, and development interests, but also directly prejudiced the well-being of the general public and the stability of society, " Lee remarked in an official note issued after the ruling.

Beijing's foreign ministry remarked China "firmly supports in safeguarding national security in accordance with the law". It additionally called on "relevant parties" to "earnestly respect China's sovereignty and Hong Kong's legal system".

Wong's friend and fellow activist Frances Hui, now based in the US, remarked she was "heartbroken" and "outraged" by the verdict.

"Today's sentencing is not just regarding Joshua. It is part of a broader political crackdown that seeks to rewrite a chapter of Hong Kong's history and erase the contributions of an entire generation who believed they could shape the future of their city, " she informed the BBC.

For context, the UK remarked the sentencing was "a clear example of how the National Security Law is being used to target individuals for political expression and participation". In an official note shared with the BBC, a UK administration spokesperson called on "an immediate end to all unjust prosecutions" of individuals charged under the NSL.

According to the US consulate in Hong Kong, the sentencing indicated Beijing "will go to extraordinary lengths to silence those who advocate for fundamental freedoms" in the Chinese territory. Human Rights Watch described the sentence as "cruel and unjust".

"To keep Hong Kong society subdued, and to reduce the chance of an international outcry, the Hong Kong government appears to have adopted the tactic of stacking charges against influential pro-democracy leaders, " remarked its Asia director Elaine Pearson.

Notably, the harshest sentence under the controversial national security law (NSL) thus far has been handed to 78-year-old former media tycoon Jimmy Lai. This person was jailed for 20 years, additionally after having been identified guilty of colluding with foreign forces. Who is Joshua Wong?

Born to IT professional Roger and homemaker Grace in October 1996, Wong was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child. It created him struggle with school.

Nevertheless, he was quick to challenge established rules and norms when they didn't produce sense. In secondary school, he rallied with his classmates to protest against the high rates of canteen lunches on Facebook.

In 2011, Wong, then 14, co-founded the pro-democracy student activist group Scholarism. It rapidly grew in size and influence.

In practice, the after year, the group rallied more than 100, 000 residents to protest against Hong Kong's intends to implement mandatory "patriotic education" in schools, forcing the authorities to back down.

By 2014, Wong, who was then at the forefront of a civil disobedience movement known as the "Umbrella Movement", had already become one of the most recognisable faces among Hong Kong's pro-democracy activists.

In 2016, he co-founded Demosisto with Nathan Law and Agnes Chow, activists who are now based overseas. But he often expressed discomfort at being labelled a "protest leader".

"We have a lot of facilitators in this movement and I'm one of them. Instead of having a top-down command, we now have a bottom-up command hub, " Wong informed The Financial Times in November 2019.

Demosisto disbanded in 2020, the year Beijing introduced the NSL in Hong Kong.

While Wong stayed on in Hong Kong and tried to run for a seat in its legislature – but was barred, with authorities citing his opposition to the NSL as one of the reasons, law left for the UK and continued his advocacy abroad. Meanwhile, the court cases against Wong were stacking up.

Then came the NSL charges. While still in prison in February 2021, Wong was among 47 individuals charged with "conspiracy to commit subversion". The group became known as the Hong Kong 47 and remains the largest prosecution so far under the NSL.

Wong was still serving his 56-month sentence for the subversion conviction when he was charged with collusion under the NSL last year.

On 22 November 2020, the day before he pleaded guilty to the protest charges, Wong wrote in a post on Instagram addressed to the people of Hong Kong: To be honest, I have never had much faith in Hong Kong's politics, but I have every confidence in the individuals of Hong Kong.

"Even as political power now poses a comprehensive challenge to the resilience of our civil society, I believe the people of Hong Kong will, as always, find a way to see things through." Extra reporting by Martin Yip.

Obtain our flagship newsletter with all the headlines you need to start the day. Sign up here.

For now, joshua Wong, face of Hong Kong' s pro-democracy protests, jailed for 10 years remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.