UK and US denounce second prison term for Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong

Britain and the United States have condemned a 10-year prison sentence imposed on Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong under the city's contested national security law.

Wong, 30, was sentenced on Thursday after pleading guilty to foreign collusion under the legislation. He is the only person to have been prosecuted twice under the law, which critics say has been deployed to silence political opposition in the city.

A spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office described the sentence as "a clear example of how the National Security Law is being used to target individuals for political expression and participation". The spokesperson called for an immediate end to unjust prosecutions under the law and urged the authorities in China and Hong Kong to honour the rights and freedoms guaranteed under the 1984 Sino-British joint declaration.

The US consulate in Hong Kong said it "strongly condemns" the additional sentence and demanded Wong's immediate release, saying he had been unjustly imprisoned since December 2020 and that the case showed Beijing would go to extraordinary lengths to silence advocates of fundamental freedoms. Soon after, China warned "relevant parties" to "stop making irresponsible remarks" about Hong Kong judicial cases.

Human rights organisations joined the criticism. Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, called the sentence "cruel and unjust", saying young people promoting social change were an asset to any vibrant society, yet Hong Kong's government puts them behind bars. Sarah Brooks, deputy regional director for Amnesty International, said the sentence was another grim reminder that the security law had become a tool to punish dissent, noting the conviction came mere months before Wong would have been eligible for release under his previous conviction.

Wong has already spent six years in detention and had been due for release in January 2027. In the most recent Foreign Office report on Hong Kong, published last month, UK foreign secretary Ed Miliband said the case reinforced concerns about the increasingly broad application of national security legislation.

Nathan Law, a Hong Kong activist and friend of Wong's who was named as a co-conspirator in the case, said it was incredibly sad to see his friend sentenced again over peaceful advocacy work. He called the sentencing "a farce" and said it signified that China "is determined to quash any hopes for freedom and democracy on its soil". Wong's supporters have called on governments worldwide to press for his release.

When the former British colony was handed to China in 1997, it was promised 50 years of "one country two systems", an arrangement meant to preserve some autonomy and freedoms. The UK considers Beijing to be in violation of that treaty following the crackdown on protests in 2019 and 2020 and the sweeping legal reforms that followed.

Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith said Wong had stood up for a treaty China had subsequently trashed, adding that the British government had done little about it and warning that the more the UK gives in when China breaks the rules, the worse things get. Labour MP James Naish said Hongkongers in his constituency had chosen Britain for the very freedoms Wong is jailed for defending, and urged the government to show China that Britain will not tolerate the sentence.