Joshua Wong pleads guilty to foreign collusion

Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong pleaded guilty Wednesday to foreign collusion in a second national security trial, a charge that can carry life imprisonment.

Wong, 29, confirmed his plea after the charges were read in court. The judge said his sentence would be decided “as soon as possible,” without giving a date. His lawyer Derek Chan asked for a shorter sentence of three to 10 years, saying Wong had already spent around six years in prison for various offences.

Wong is accused of asking foreign countries, individuals or institutions in 2020 to impose sanctions or a blockade, or carry out other hostile activities, against Hong Kong and China after Beijing imposed a national security law on the city.

Prosecutors said Wong, self-exiled activist Nathan Law and others lobbied on social media to draw foreign support. They said Wong wrote for newspapers, spoke to media outlets to call for international sanctions against China and Hong Kong, and met foreign politicians including former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi and current US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Wong is already serving a nearly five-year sentence for subversion and had been due for release in January. Rights groups have said the new charges are aimed at keeping him behind bars for as long as possible.

Wong became prominent during the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests and was involved in the 2019 democracy rallies before Beijing imposed the national security law the following year. He was among dozens of pro-democracy campaigners convicted in Hong Kong's largest national security trial over informal elections in 2020.