Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong pleads guilty to collusion with foreign entities

Prominent Hong ​Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong pleaded ‌guilty ​on Wednesday to a charge of collusion with foreign entities, a national security crime that carries a maximum ‌sentence of life in prison. Wong, 29, rose to international prominence as a teenage democracy activist in Hong Kong, one of a group of youngsters whose protest ‌efforts have now effectively been outlawed by a sweeping national security law ‌that Beijing imposed on the Asian financial hub in 2020.

Wearing a dark blue shirt and black-rimmed glasses, Wong waved and nodded to people from the court's dock, inhaling deeply at times, ⁠before ​pleading guilty to ⁠a government-approved national security judge at Hong Kong's High Court in the district of Admiralty. Wong is ⁠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 is scheduled to ⁠end ​next year.

A charge sheet seen earlier by Reuters accused Wong of having conspired with exiled activist Nathan Law and others to ask foreign ⁠countries, institutions, organizations, or individuals outside China to impose sanctions or blockades. Such actions against ⁠Hong Kong ⁠or China, along with other hostile activities targeting them, took place in 2020, between July 1 and November 23, it ‌added.

(Reporting By ‌Greg Torode; Editing by Anne Marie ​Roantree and Thomas Derpinghaus)