Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong pleads guilty in second national security case

BREAKING: Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, 29, pleads guilty to conspiring to seek foreign sanctions against China under the National Security Law, a charge that carries a maximum life sentence.

Joshua Wong just pleaded guilty to a charge that can carry life in prison.

He's 29 now. He was the teenager with the glasses who became the face of Hong Kong's democracy movement, and you can see him here in his campaigning days, microphones everywhere he went.

The charge is conspiring to seek foreign sanctions against China and Hong Kong under the National Security Law. Prosecutors say he met foreign politicians, lobbied for sanctions, and kept doing it after the law came in. These pictures show him in custody, where he has been continuously since November 2020, nearly six years already.

This is his second national security case. He got four years and eight months for the last one, over an unofficial primary election. He was due out in January 2027. That date is gone now. Sentencing comes later, three to ten years, or life if the court calls it grave. People queued overnight just to watch him say the word guilty.

This is Kateryna Kovalenko, reporting for HIT.