By 2014, Joshua Wong had emerged as a prominent figure in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy activism during the “Umbrella Movement.” In 2016, he co-founded Demosisto with Nathan Law and Agnes Chow, both now residing abroad. Despite his visibility, Wong often downplayed his role, stating, “We have a lot of facilitators in this movement and I’m one of them… Instead of having a top-down command, we now have a bottom-up command hub,” he told The Financial Times in November 2019.
Demosisto disbanded in 2020, coinciding with the introduction of the National Security Law (NSL) by Beijing. Law moved to the UK to continue his activism, while Wong remained in Hong Kong but was barred from running for a legislative seat due to his opposition to the NSL.
Wong faced numerous legal challenges. On 23 November 2020, he pleaded guilty to charges related to protests outside the police headquarters in 2019. He was later charged under the NSL while still in prison, becoming one of 47 activists accused of “conspiracy to commit subversion,” the largest prosecution to date under the new law.
On the eve of his guilty plea for the protest charges, Wong shared a message on Instagram for the people of Hong Kong, expressing his confidence in them despite his doubts about local politics. “Even as political power now poses a comprehensive challenge to the resilience of our civil society, I believe the people of Hong Kong will, as always, find a way to see things through,” he wrote.
