BREAKING: Jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigner Joshua Wong pleads guilty to foreign collusion charge

Joshua Wong, a pro-democracy activist from Hong Kong, has pleaded guilty to a foreign collusion charge, marking his second conviction under the Beijing-imposed national security law. The 29-year-old was found guilty of conspiring with self-exiled activist Nathan Law and others in 2020 to seek foreign intervention against Hong Kong or China through sanctions, blockades, or other hostile actions. The offence carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Wong is currently serving a four-year-eight-month sentence for his involvement in the "Hong Kong 47" case, where he was among 45 prominent campaigners convicted in 2024 for conspiring to subvert state power. The additional foreign collusion conviction could potentially extend his prison term beyond the original expected release date of 2027.

Wong, a co-founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy party Demosisto in 2016, was arrested in Stanley Prison by the national security department's police in June 2025 and has been incarcerated since November 2020.

Prosecutors allege that Wong, alongside Law, engaged in international lobbying efforts to impose sanctions on Hong Kong or China, requested the US to introduce the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act in 2019, and encouraged other Western countries to adopt Magnitsky-style sanction acts. Despite the enactment of the national security law in June 2020, Wong continued his international lobbying campaign, prosecutors claim.