Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), the Hong Kong pro-democracy activist, turns 30 today. He is spending his birthday behind bars at Stanley Prison, where he has been held for 2,150 days for various protest and national security-related convictions, such as “conspiracy to commit subversion.” He now faces the possibility of a life sentence for fresh charges brought against him last year under Hong Kong’s national security legislation.
“It has never been clearer that the government aims to keep a symbol of my generation’s democracy movement out of public life,” wrote exiled Hong Kong democracy activist Frances Hui (許穎婷) in a recent post for CIVICUS Lens.
Wong was arrested on protest-related charges several times for his activism as a teenager and young adult, including during the 2014 Umbrella Movement and the 2019 anti-extradition protests. But his more serious set of convictions began with his arrest from jail on January 7, 2021 for “conspiracy to commit subversion” under national security legislation imposed by Beijing that broadly criminalizes peaceful speech and activism.
Wong was one of 47 Hongkongers targeted for participating in the pro-democracy camp primary elections in July 2020, where he won the Kowloon East constituency. In November 2024, he was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison for this conviction.
His current sentence was set to expire in January. But in June 2025, Wong was arrested from jail and charged again under Hong Kong’s national security legislation. This time he was charged with conspiracy to collude with a foreign country or external elements. The charge highlighted Wong’s collaboration with another exiled Hong Kong pro-democracy activist, Nathan Law (羅冠聰), to campaign for foreign governments, organizations and individuals to impose sanctions against Hong Kong or China.
Wong pled guilty to the charge last month and now awaits sentencing. He faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Hong Kong media mogul and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai (黎智英) was sentenced to 20 years for the same charge earlier this year after pleading not guilty.
Experts told Domino Theory last year that this new charge was a “political move” to keep Wong in jail as long as possible. He is one of the most famous Hong Kong dissidents, and Beijing likely still views him as a threat.
The government “wants to wear down his spirit through years of isolation. That’s why prosecutors waited nearly five years to bring this charge, until Joshua had almost finished his sentence,” wrote Hui, the exiled activist.
“No one should spend time in prison for defending democracy,” the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation wrote in a post honoring Wong’s birthday on X.
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