Hong Kong: Human Rights Organizations Condemn Unjust Sentencing of Joshua Wong

We, the undersigned organizations, condemn the November 5th sentencing of Hong Kong prodemocracy advocate Joshua Wong to a 10-year sentence by the Hong Kong High Court. This is the second time he has been sentenced under the Beijing-imposed National Security Law (NSL), which has contributed to the rapid deterioration of basic freedoms in Hong Kong.

Joshua, who marked his 30th birthday in prison three weeks ago, rose to prominence as a teenager as the cofounder of the student group Scholarism, which opposed the introduction of pro-Beijing propaganda into Hong Kong's schools. He helped lead the historic 2014 Umbrella Movement and in 2016 created the prodemocracy Demosistō party, which was forced to disband after the approval of the NSL in 2020. He has received international acclaim for his democratic activism, including multiple nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize.

As a result of this advocacy, Joshua has been repeatedly imprisoned, and has been detained continuously since November 2020. In 2024, he was sentenced to four years and eight months’ imprisonment on charges of conspiracy to commit subversion in connection with him taking part in the first and only city-wide democratic primary.

He was expected to be released in January 2027, but faced additional charges in June 2025 of conspiring to collude with foreign forces for his earlier activism. As part of these charges, prosecutors referred to meetings that Joshua had with US government officials, including then Senator Marco Rubio. This is among a worrying series of attempts by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to restrict and control not only who Chinese citizens and Hong Kongers may meet, but also who foreign government officials may contact and what information they can receive.

Additionally, the Beijing-backed Hong Kong government is strongly discouraging residents from viewing and considering further action on the award-winning documentary Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower, which chronicles Joshua's early activism, further demonstrating its efforts to suppress independent accounts of Hong Kong's prodemocracy movement.

Joshua's detention also highlights how the CCP continues to flout the Sino-British Joint Declaration. That treaty, negotiated as part of Hong Kong's 1997 handover, enshrines the "one country, two systems" principle that was supposed to prevail until 2047. The CCP's disregard for that principle—demonstrated by Joshua's detention for exercising his fundamental freedoms—calls into question whether deals the CCP negotiates on trade or other issues will be honored.

We call on Hong Kong authorities to release Joshua immediately and unconditionally, and we ask that democratic governments more forcefully demand his release. Specifically, we request that the White House and the State Department commit to raising Joshua’s case and calling for his release in the upcoming bilateral meetings between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, particularly as we look to the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in November in Shenzhen, and the Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Florida in December.

The Trump administration has done a commendable job prioritizing the release of political prisoners around the world. The release of political prisoner Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri from detention in China earlier this year demonstrates that when the president of the United States intervenes directly, it can make a real, lifesaving difference.

Signed: 

1. Freedom House
2. RT Weatherman Foundation
3. No Business With Genocide
4. Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) Foundation
5. Georgetown Center for Asian Law
6. Human Rights Foundation (HRF)
7. Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice
8. Network for Uyghur Rights (NUR)
9. Dialogue China
10. Tibet Action Institute
11. Free Russia Foundation
12. The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR)
13. Toronto Association for Democracy in China (TADC)
14. Vancouver Society in Support of Democratic Movement (VSSDM)
15. Choose Humanity
16. CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
17. Safeguard Defenders 
18. Free Them One by One (FT1by1) 
19. Canada-Hong Kong Link (CHKL)
20. Luke Alliance
21. DC4HK - Washingtonian Supporting Hong Kong
22. Hong Kong Democracy Council
23. CSW
24. World Liberty Congress
25. Free Tibet
26. International Tibet Network
27. Advocates for Political Prisoners 
28. The Rights Practice 
29. Fortify Rights
30. ARTICLE 19
31. Human Rights in China
32. Humanitarian China
33. Hong Kong Watch
34. Action Free Hong Kong Montreal (FreeHKMTL)
35. Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
36. International Campaign for Tibet
37. Hong Kong Forum, Los Angeles
38. Judicial Reform Foundation
39. World Uyghur Congress
40. International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)