By Greg Torode
HONG KONG, Sept 2 (Reuters) – 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, black-rimmed glasses and with a short-back-and-sides haircut, Wong waved and nodded to people from the court’s dock, inhaling deeply at times, before pleading guilty to William Tam, a government-approved national security judge, at Hong Kong’s High Court in the district of Admiralty.
Several Western diplomats attended the hearing.
The prosecution highlighted what it said was an international media and political campaign by Demosisto, a now-disbanded political party that once backed a referendum on Hong Kong’s sovereignty and counted Wong as one of its leaders, that sought to bring sanctions and other hostile actions on Hong Kong and China in 2019 and 2020.
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 in January 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.
Wong’s case and others are being closely watched by international human rights groups and some Western countries tracking the implementation of the National Security Law.
In mitigation, Wong’s lawyer Derek Chan urged the judge to consider that his client’s actions were not at the grave end of the offence.
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.
Wong has had a lengthy “opportunity to reflect on the path that he has taken … and the consequences of his actions,” Chan said.
Wong has read a diverse selection of hundreds of books in detention and was in a positive frame of mind, he added. He eventually wanted to be released to look after his ageing parents.
Judge Tam said he would decide on the sentence “as soon as possible” and ended the hearing without setting a date.
His case comes after two other activists were found guilty of inciting subversion last month after they used the phrase “end one-party dictatorship” in their political activities.
Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, were part of a group known for organising annual vigils marking Beijing’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
Hong Kong’s National Security Law was passed on June 30, 2020, in part as a response to months of sometimes-violent pro-democracy protests that roiled the city in 2019.
While international human rights groups and Western countries criticised the law as excessive given the high degree of autonomy Hong Kong was promised following its handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997, Hong Kong and Chinese officials said it was vital to restore stability.
(Reporting By Greg Torode; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Thomas Derpinghaus)
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