Mark Pinkstone says the story of a teenage activist pursuing a ‘dream’ no longer exists

Headlines around the world ran “Joshua Wong pleads guilty” as if it were some sort of proclamation. Nevertheless, most ran it as a straight news story.  The “save Joshua” rhetoric has died down.

Slowly, the truth is hitting home. Wong has formally pleaded guilty of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces.

According to court transcripts and the prosecution’s case, Wong was actively engaging in an “international battlefront” to lobby foreign lawmakers, particularly in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, to interfere in Hong Kong’s affairs. The evidence is overwhelming. There were pictures and global television coverage of him meeting US politicians and government officials, as well as published articles, in which he pleaded with his foreign audience to sanction his home city of Hong Kong as well as its soverign nation China. The prosecution highlighted Wong’s specific efforts, such as urging the US to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act in 2019, calling on foreign businesses to halt investments on the Chinese mainland, and successfully lobbying an international forensic tech firm to cut off its services to the Hong Kong Police Force.

Wong admitted to these actions in court, acknowledging his role in lobbying for external intervention to pressure Beijing and the special administrative region government into granting their political demands, including repealing the Hong Kong SAR National Security Law.

He is currently serving a prison term of four years and eight months for conspiracy to subvert State power through his participation in an illegal legislative “primary election” in July 2020, with the aim of subverting the government.

He was a poster-boy activist, adored by the West as a rebel with a cause. With his boyish looks and long-fringed crew-cut hairstyle, he was portrayed as a model of how today’s youth should be perceived — “critical-thinking” beings.

But a book should not be judged by the look of its cover. Beyond that boyish grin, he was being naively led by the nose by foreign so-called friends who had a hidden agenda. And that was to overthrow the SAR’s political system and constitutional order established by the Basic Law.

To the Western mainstream media, “Joshuaism” became a poster-boy cult with all the China hawks providing the right sound bites for democracy, even though it was basically nonexistent before 1997 but has already progressed tremendously since the handover. There was no fact-checking, just soundbites that made good copy. Just as old newspaper hacks would say, “don’t let facts get in the way of a good story”.

So, Wong was a US lackey. However, it was the US that let him down. He was not offered US sanctuary and was hung out to dry. He is probably seen as a used battery without further use to the US.

Still, Wong has apologists in the West, who say that he should not have been charged in the first place and that he was exercising his freedom of speech. But freedom of speech is not absolute. There are restrictions governing its exercise, such as slander, libel and sedition, which are all applicable worldwide. Moreover, Wong’s conspiracy offense was underpinned by his actions.  

The actions by Wong and his peers triggered citywide riots and demonstrations spanning several years, which nearly crippled Hong Kong. The upheavals were handled solely by the SAR government and its police force. Not once did Beijing or the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) interfere, even though the riots were taking place directly outside the PLA Hong Kong Garrison’s barracks and headquarters in the Central district. This is proof that Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of autonomy, as prescribed in the Basic Law.

As for the anti-China group Hong Kong Watch, which includes the likes of Chris Patten and David Alton among its patrons, imagine a Londoner going to Beijing and begging the authorities to sanction the UK prime minister, the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and anyone else, against its well-established system of government. All hell would break loose, and the culprit would likely face prosecution. Well, it did happen in Hong Kong, and the culprits are now paying the price. Patten should know better, but his deep dislike of China and everything associated with it has clouded his judgment.

China-bashers are keeping the Joshua Wong flame alight, but they are not getting the traction they once had. Most of the international media has read the evidence presented at the court trial and come to realize that all is not as it seems. None were proclaiming his innocence. Instead, those apologists have to rely on social media to champion their cause. Today, the story of a teenage activist pursuing a “dream” no longer exists. That said, as far as some China-hostile media outlets are concerned, Wong is still news because of his “residual value”, even though there is nothing new in it.

The author is a former chief information officer of the Hong Kong government, a PR & media consultant, and a veteran journalist.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.