‘Hypocritical’: Hong Kong hits back at criticism of Joshua Wong’s sentence

Hong Kong has hit back at a joint statement from 10 countries over the latest sentencing of opposition activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung, accusing them of distorting facts and smearing the city’s national security law.

The rebuttal came after the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the UK issued a joint statement on Friday saying the sentencing of Wong, together with the earlier jailing of many others, showed how the city’s national security law (NSL) was being used to “target individuals for political expression and participation”.

Wong was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in a global campaign to instigate sanctions against mainland China and Hong Kong in the wake of the 2019 anti-government protests.

“We call for an immediate end to all unjust prosecutions of individuals charged under the NSL and urge the authorities in China and Hong Kong to uphold their international commitments and honour the rights and freedoms guaranteed to the people of Hong Kong under the Sino-British Joint Declaration [1984],” the joint statement said.

A government spokesman said on Saturday that the joint statement disregarded facts, blatantly interfered with the exercise of judicial power and maliciously slandered the national security law.

“The government strongly urges the relevant countries to immediately cease interfering in Hong Kong affairs, which are purely China’s internal affairs,” he said in a statement.

The spokesman reiterated that Wong had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, and that Hong Kong courts had strictly followed legal provisions and judicial procedures, “handing down the sentence independently and impartially based on objective facts and sufficient evidence, fully embodying Hong Kong’s spirit of the rule of law”.

“The government urges the relevant countries to stop making irresponsible and misleading remarks, and to cease interfering in any manner with the operation of judicial proceedings in the city and with Hong Kong affairs, which are internal affairs of China,” he added.

“Any attempt to undermine the government’s resolve to safeguard national security is doomed to fail and will never succeed.”

The spokesman also said the “groundless attacks” by the countries had exposed their “hypocritical double standards”.

“There are numerous cases in the countries concerned where their own citizens as well as foreign nationals have been prosecuted on charges such as ‘foreign agent’ and ‘foreign interference’, not to mention instances of arbitrary arrest and malicious prosecution,” he said.

Wong, 30, had been due to complete a sentence of four years and eight months for conspiracy to commit subversion on January 7 next year.

The High Court ruled on Thursday that he and fugitive former lawmaker Nathan Law Kwun-chung had partly contributed to sanctions and other adverse measures against mainland and Hong Kong officials, significantly undermining national security.

The court ordered the two months and two days remaining on Wong’s earlier national security sentence to run concurrently with his new jail term, pushing his expected release date back to November 2036.

The joint statement noted that the 10-year term came after “a further charge” under the security law and that many others had been jailed under the law before him.

In a separate case, three former leaders of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China – the group behind the city’s annual Tiananmen Square vigil – were sentenced to up to seven years and three months for inciting subversion by calling for an end to “one-party dictatorship” in mainland China.

They were former chairman Lee Cheuk-yan, former vice-chairwoman Chow Hang-tung and former vice-chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan.