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Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong has pleaded guilty to a charge of colluding with foreign interests - that's under a Beijing-imposed national security law. Critics say that the law is eroding rights and freedoms in the former British colony. NPR China correspondent Jennifer Pak reports from Beijing.
JENNIFER PAK, BYLINE: Wong got into activism as a teenager. He was at the forefront of massive pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2014 and 2019. Today, fellow activist Frances Hui says he's known for something else.
FRANCES HUI: Perhaps one of the best-known political prisoners today from Hong Kong, unfortunately.
PAK: In 2019, Wong testified in front of the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Ahead of today's hearing, the commission called the charges against Wong, quote, "unjust" and reposted part of his testimony where he warned of Beijing's overreach in Hong Kong.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOSHUA WONG: I was once the face of Hong Kong's youth activism. In this leaderless movement, my sacrifice are minimals (ph) compared to those among us who have been laid off of protesting, who have been injured but too afraid of even going to a hospital or who have been forced to take their own life.
PAK: Beijing imposed the national security law in Hong Kong in 2020 following the protest. Chinese leaders said the law was needed to bring stability to Hong Kong. Wong is already serving a prison sentence after he was convicted of subversion in 2024 and was due to be released next year. Now he may be in prison longer. Today, Wong pleaded guilty of rallying foreign countries to impose sanctions against Hong Kong and China.
CECIL KUNG: (Speaking Mandarin).
PAK: "Wong's plea is not a genuine admission but a way to get a reduced sentence," says Cecil Kung with the rights group New School for Democracy, based in Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own.
KUNG: (Speaking Mandarin).
PAK: "The trial also serves as a cautionary tale," he says, "that the Communist Party cannot be trusted." For Hui, who is now in exile and with the D.C.-based Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, Wong's guilty plea doesn't diminish the activism.
HUI: This is an imprisonment of Joshua Wong, the icon of the democracy movement of my generation.
PAK: She says Wong inspired many to keep pushing for their rights and freedoms.
Jennifer Pak, NPR News, Beijing. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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