Wong Chi-fung Sentenced to 10 Years for Conspiracy to Collude with Foreign Forces

Former Demosisto secretary-general Joshua Wong Chi-fung was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the High Court today after admitting to a charge of conspiracy to collude with foreign or external forces to endanger national security under the Hong Kong National Security Law.

Wong and Nathan Law Kwun-chung co-founded the organisation Demosisto in 2016, with Wong serving as secretary-general and Law as founding chairman. The court heard that their conspiracy began that year through so-called “international lobbying” aimed at advancing the group’s “democratic self-determination” agenda. Before the National Security Law took effect, both repeatedly sought foreign sanctions or other adverse measures against the mainland and Hong Kong. Their activities included overseas visits, meetings with foreign politicians, joint petition campaigns, and promotion of an “International Battlefront” on social media.

Wong has a prior criminal record. He was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment in 2017 for storming the government headquarters and three months in 2018 for breaching a court injunction during clearance operations in Mong Kok. In November 2024, he was convicted of conspiracy to subvert state power in connection with the 2020 “primary election” organised by Benny Tai and sentenced to four years and eight months.

According to the case facts, in November 2016 Wong met then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senators Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton, and Columbia University professor Andrew Nathan in the United States, urging passage of the so-called Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. After the 2019 legislative amendment controversy, Wong, Law and five others testified at a hearing of the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China, urging a review of Hong Kong’s special status. The Act was signed into law on 27 November 2019.

In January 2017, Wong and other Demosisto members travelled to Taiwan to take part in a forum organised by a pro-independence party. The group had openly advocated self-determination options that included Hong Kong independence, in breach of the Basic Law, and sought to introduce such positions into the electoral system while promoting them on university campuses.

Between 2016 and 2019, Wong and Law made multiple overseas trips seeking foreign sanctions, including visits to Germany and Italy and appearances before the European Parliament’s human rights subcommittee. After the National Security Law came into force on 30 June 2020, Demosisto announced its dissolution. Wong and Law resigned from their positions that day, and Law subsequently left Hong Kong. Wong continued to post that he would not abandon the “International Battlefront.”

Subsequent activities included a joint article in a British newspaper in August 2020, calls for foreign forensic software companies to stop supplying the Hong Kong Police, an article in a financial newspaper in September 2020 advising companies and governments to reduce reliance on China, and the sharing of posts by Law about meetings with British officials seeking sanctions. In November 2020, Wong released a pre-sentencing work report documenting his continued international lobbying after the National Security Law took effect.

After the prosecution outlined the facts, Wong confirmed them when asked by the judge. High Court Judge Andrew Chan ruled that the nature of the offence was serious and imposed a 10-year sentence, of which two months and two days will run concurrently with Wong’s existing sentence.