The United States, the United Kingdom, and allies have denounced the sentencing of Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong to 10 years’ imprisonment following an extra cost underneath the National Security Law.
The governments of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and New Zealand additionally endorsed the joint assertion launched on Friday.
Noting that the decision adopted the conviction of leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance, the associate nations stated the NSL “is being used to target individuals for political expression and participation.”
They demanded an finish to “all unjust prosecutions of individuals charged under the NSL,” urging China and Hong Kong to uphold international commitments and the folks’s rights assured underneath the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration.
“In the face of overwhelming facts and evidence, Wong had no grounds to justify his behavior and pleaded guilty,” stated Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun.
Beijing suggested nations to respect China’s sovereignty and the rule of regulation in Hong Kong, and cease interfering in Hong Kong’s judicial affairs and China’s inside affairs.
Thirty-year-old Wong was already serving a four-year, eight-month jail time period after pleading responsible in a serious nationwide safety case, and was due for launch in January.
But in 2025, he was charged once more, alongside fellow activist Nathan Law, with conspiracy to collude with international forces and looking for measures in opposition to China and Hong Kong.
“It is also necessary for this court to express the community’s abhorrence of the defendant’s scheme and acts together with others to collude with foreign forces,” Judge William Tam wrote in his ruling.
Joshua Wong Chi-fung and Nathan Law Kwun-chung first emerged as teenage scholar activists throughout the 2012 anti-national training protests and the 2014 Umbrella Movement.
They co-founded the defunct political social gathering Demosistō in 2016, along with Agnes Chow, to advocate for democratic self-determination and worldwide consciousness.
