Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong pleads guilty to foreign collusion charge
Prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiring to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security under a Beijing-imposed law that has largely silenced the city’s once-vibrant pro-democracy movement.
It was the second time Wong, a former student leader, has faced prosecution under Hong Kong’s national security law, introduced in 2020 following the mass anti-government protests that shook the city in 2019.
Wong, 29, faces up to life in prison and is expected to be sentenced later. A guilty plea can typically result in a reduced sentence.
He is already serving four years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty in a separate national security case linked to an unofficial primary election.
Wong was accused of conspiring with fellow activist Nathan Law and others to ask foreign countries, institutions, organisations or individuals outside China to impose sanctions, blockades or take other hostile actions against Hong Kong or China between July 1 and November 23, 2020.
The offence carries a prison term of three to 10 years, and up to life imprisonment if it is deemed to be of a grave nature.
Wong was arrested in connection with the collusion case in June 2025. He had been due to complete his existing sentence in January next year.
Critics say Wong’s prosecution reflects authorities’ efforts to silence prominent dissidents and has created a chilling effect on civic activism. Beijing, however, regards Wong as an anti-China figure and has accused him of supporting Hong Kong independence, which it considers a red line.
Wong first rose to prominence in 2012 as a high school student leading protests against plans to introduce national education in schools.
He later became an internationally recognised face of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement through his role in the 2014 Occupy protests.
In 2016, Wong co-founded the political party Demosisto with other young activists, including Law, who became Hong Kong’s youngest lawmaker that year.
During the 2019 protests, Wong helped seek international support for the democracy movement, including from the United States. Beijing criticised his overseas lobbying, accusing him of seeking foreign interference.
Demosisto disbanded after Beijing imposed the national security law in 2020.
The legislation criminalises secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. Authorities have defended it as necessary to restore stability, while critics say it has been used to suppress political opposition and civil liberties.
Several other prominent activists have been jailed under the law, including former media tycoon Jimmy Lai. Others have left Hong Kong for countries including the United States and Britain.
Hong Kong authorities have separately offered rewards of 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($127,600) for information leading to the arrest of Law and other overseas-based activists.
