Joshua Wong pleads guilty to colluding with foreign entities under Hong Kong security law
By Greg Torode
HONG KONG, Sept. 2 (Reuters) - Joshua Wong, one of Hong Kong's most prominent democracy activists, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a charge of collusion with foreign entities, a National Security Law offense that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The 29-year-old appeared at the High Court in the Admiralty district wearing a dark blue shirt and black-rimmed glasses. He waved and nodded from the dock, inhaling deeply at times, before entering his plea to the judge assigned to national security cases.
Prosecutors said Wong and Demosisto, the now-disbanded political party he helped lead and which once backed a referendum on Hong Kong's sovereignty, ran an international media and political campaign in 2019 and 2020 intended to push foreign governments to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and mainland China.
According to the charge sheet, Wong conspired with exiled activist Nathan Law and others to ask foreign countries, institutions, organizations, or individuals outside China to impose sanctions or blockades. The alleged conduct occurred between July 1 and Nov. 23, 2020.
Several Western diplomats attended Wednesday's hearing.
Wong, whose teenage activism made him a global symbol of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, is already serving time for a separate National Security Law conviction on a charge of conspiracy to commit subversion. That case arose from an unofficial primary election in 2020 in which he and other democratic activists took part. His current sentence is due to end next year.
The case is being closely watched by international human rights groups and some Western governments tracking how the National Security Law is applied. It follows last month's convictions of two veteran activists, Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, for inciting subversion after using the phrase "end one-party dictatorship" in their political activities. The two had been part of a group that organized annual vigils marking Beijing's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
Beijing enacted the National Security Law on June 30, 2020, partly in response to months of sometimes-violent pro-democracy protests that convulsed Hong Kong in 2019. Western governments and human rights groups have criticized the law as excessive, saying it undermines the high degree of autonomy promised to Hong Kong when it returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997. Hong Kong and Chinese officials have argued the law was essential to restoring stability and protecting national security.
Wong's guilty plea adds another high-profile conviction to a sweeping crackdown that has largely dismantled the city's pro-democracy camp, underscoring the legal pressure facing activists who remain in Hong Kong.
(Reporting by Greg Torode; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Thomas Derpinghaus)