Activists, friends and former Hong Kong democracy campaigners have rallied behind Joshua Wong with messages of solidarity after the prominent pro-democracy leader pleaded guilty to a national security charge that could carry a life sentence.
Wong, 29, went from being the teenage face of Hong Kong’s democracy movement to one of its most prominent imprisoned activists, having spent nearly six years behind bars as Beijing’s national security crackdown dismantled the city’s pro-democracy movement.
On Wednesday, Wong appeared in Hong Kong High Court and answered “guilty” to the charge of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, which was read in full after the court recognised a high level of public interest in the case.
He was accused of conspiring with other pro democracy campaigners to lobby lawmakers, specifically the US politicians Nancy Pelosi and Marco Rubio, to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and China for muzzling democratic rights in the semi-autonomous territory.
The court heard that Wong and Nathan Law had participated in "international lobbying on numerous occasions", including via visits to the US, Germany and Italy.
However, the guilty plea has sparked outrage among the supporters of Wong who believe that the government is determined to keep the pro-democracy icon behind bars, producing a chilling effect on remaining civic space.
Critics have argued that Wong is being prosecuted retroactively for alleged offences committed before the national security law came into force.
Andrew Duncan, who knew Wong while making the award-winning 2017 Netflix documentary Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower, said he is a proxy for the millions of people who went to the streets during the 2019 protests.
“Joshua was left with few alternatives. What’s very upsetting to me about today is the fact that he had to plead at all,” Mr Duncan told The Independent.
“The fact that he was charged is outrageous. He's been charged twice with the same crime,” Mr Duncan said.
He said Wong was a young voice, a person who spoke, and he had a lot of people who followed him.
“Xi Jinping wants to let all those millions of people who went into the streets know that – make an example out of them through people like Joshua.
“Joshua Wong is not a criminal. He’s the furthest thing from a criminal you could ever meet.
“All it does is make Chairman Xi look weak. This does not make him look strong. And each passing day that these men are in there, it’s costing Chinese taxpayers to have these people locked up,” he said.
Frances Hui, a social activist from the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, said Wong should never have been charged for this and he should not be spending a single day behind bars for simply bringing attention to Hong Kong’s human rights situation.
“They are treating the fact that Joshua didn't change his beliefs overnight as evidence that the alleged conspiracy continued,” she said.
“In that sense, the national security law is being given a retrospective effect to build a case that could keep him behind bars for many more years,” she added.
Ms Hui said this is no more about “silencing people, it is about isolating them”.
“It creates a chilling effect for Hong Kongers both inside and outside Hong Kong. Your relationships with people still inside Hong Kong can potentially be turned against them.”
Thinner than in previous public appearances, Wong stood straight in the dock in a dark navy shirt, his thick black-rimmed glasses framing a composed face and a short-back-and-sides haircut.
As the charge was read out, he kept his hands behind his back before answering in a clear, firm voice when asked to confirm his plea: “Guilty.”
At times he took deep breaths but there were flashes of the Wong familiar to his supporters.
Wong nodded and waved to friends and supporters in the public gallery, and smiled when someone called out, “Hang in there, Joshua!” As correctional officers escorted him from the courtroom after the hearing, he turned towards the gallery, waved and called out, “Bye-bye.”
Some 40 of his supporters, including fellow activists and close friends, gathered outside the court.
Among them was Gloria Cheng, 32, his friend. “This is not the first time for him and there were others before him,” she said, referring to similar cases against other activists in Hong Kong.
“It really shows the state of affairs in Hong Kong now.”
Louis Lee, a former member of Scholarism who also attended the hearing, told reporters that Wong appeared to be in good spirits while in court.
“We will keep supporting him as he has been our friend for many years, and I hope the public will continue to support and care about him as well,” he said in Cantonese.
Sophie Richardson, a longtime China rights advocate, said “it’s his jailers who should be in the dock” and not Wong in a more stern statement.
“Conflating promoting democracy and free speech with undermining national security is a favourite dodge for authoritarians. Beijing also likes blaming ‘hostile’, but unspecified foreign forces,” she said.
Anna Kwok, Hong Kong pro-democracy activist living in exile in the US, called his trial a “total sham”.
“Hong Kong’s court is now a sandbox for far-fetched logic,” Ms Kwok, whose father was convicted in February 2026 under Hong Kong's national-security legislation, said on X.
“The gov’t argues @joshuawongcf has conspired to collude w/ foreign forces for reposting a former colleague on social media. Worse? Most evidence predates this very law that can now give him life imprisonment.”
Wong was just 15 when he rose to prominence and became a teenage icon when he led sit-in protests with his classmates to successfully overturn a government’s plans to introduce Chinese civic education in the city’s schools.
He then became one of the faces of the 2014 Umbrella Movement, when protesters occupied parts of Hong Kong demanding greater democratic representation by blocking major thoroughfares for 79 straight days.
He later co-founded the pro-democracy party Demosistō in 2016 with other young democracy activists, including Mr Law, who now lives in the UK. The party advocated greater democratic self-determination for Hong Kong and was dissolved in 2020 after Beijing imposed the national security law. He ran for the Hong Kong Legislative Council elections that year.
This marked Wong’s second conviction under the national security law. He was already in jail serving an existing sentence on an earlier national security charge of conspiracy to commit subversion after he was among a group of democratic activists who participated in an unofficial primary election in 2020.
His current sentence was scheduled to end in January next year.
While the crime carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, Chan requested a term at the "upper end of the lower band" of three to 10 years be considered, as Wong was still a young man who had already served nearly six years in prison.
Chan said Correctional Services had also told Wong he would not receive a remission on his earlier sentence.
Wong, who turns 30 next month, has been in prison since he was 24 and has had a “lengthy opportunity to reflect” on his actions, Chan said, adding that he “has not wasted his time in prison”.
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