10 Years: Joshua Wong Jailed Again Under Hong Kong's National Security Law
November 5, 2026 · Frisian News
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
A Hong Kong court sentenced pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong to 10 years in prison on November 5 for his second National Security Law conviction, bringing his total time in custody past 2,100 days.
The number
2,100
days Joshua Wong has spent in custody across all convictions
Source: Hong Kong Watch ↗
Ten years. That is what Hong Kong's High Court handed Joshua Wong on November 5 for his second conviction under the National Security Law, which Beijing imposed in 2020. Wong is 30 years old. He had already spent nearly six years behind bars and was not due to be released until January 2027. He will now serve another decade.
Wong was already partway through a four-year, eight-month sentence for conspiracy to commit subversion in the Hong Kong 47 case, described by the BBC as the largest NSL prosecution to date. Hong Kong Watch reports his total time in custody across all convictions has exceeded 2,100 days. High Court Judge William Tam set a starting point of 13 years and reduced it to 10 because Wong had entered a guilty plea in September, as NBC News reported.
Prosecutors alleged that between July and late November 2020, Wong worked with exiled activist Nathan Law to lobby foreign governments for sanctions and blockades against Beijing, as the BBC reported. The prosecution pointed to meetings with US politicians including Nancy Pelosi and Marco Rubio in 2016 and 2019, according to NBC News. The charge was conspiring to collude with foreign forces, the same offence used to jail former media tycoon Jimmy Lai for 20 years, the stiffest sentence handed down under the law so far, according to the BBC.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee described Wong and Law as "among the primary culprits responsible for undermining Hong Kong's prosperity and stability," according to a statement cited by the BBC. The Hong Kong authorities maintain that the NSL was necessary to restore order after the 2019 protests and that law enforcement actions are evidence-based, as NBC News reported.
The numbers challenge that framing. Wong is the only activist in Hong Kong prosecuted twice under the NSL, according to The Guardian. Eric Lai, a research fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, told NBC News that "NSL charges can be repeatedly weaponised to keep a specific political prisoner in jail, if the government deems necessary." Human Rights Watch Asia director Elaine Pearson said the government "appears to have adopted the tactic of stacking charges against influential pro-democracy leaders," as the BBC reported.
Amnesty International's deputy regional director Sarah Brooks said the sentence was "another grim reminder of how Hong Kong's national security law has become a tool to punish dissent rather than to genuinely protect national security," as The Guardian reported. Hong Kong Watch Policy and Advocacy Director Megan Khoo called the prosecution "a clear example of the weaponisation of the Hong Kong National Security Law to criminalise any hint of dissent and indefinitely prolong the imprisonment of pro-democracy activists."
Wong was born in the final years of Hong Kong's British colonial rule, just before the city's return to China in 1997, as NBC News noted. At 14, he co-founded the student activist group Scholarism. The following year, that group had mobilised more than 100,000 people to protest against mandatory "patriotic education" in schools, forcing the authorities to back down, according to the BBC. He will spend the prime years of his adult life in a cell for posting on social media and meeting foreign politicians.
Dozens of Hongkongers queued for hours outside the court on Thursday for a seat in the public gallery. That is what witnessing dissent costs now.
Published November 5, 2026 · Frisian News