Stephanie Nebehay

Beyond the U.S. election results, there's something else you should care about: My friend Joshua Wong has been sentenced to another 10 years in prison for his peaceful advocacy of democracy in Hong Kong. He's been behind bars for over 2,100 days. When the police knocked on his door, Biden had just been elected, the iPhone 12 was brand new, and OpenAI had only recently launched the GPT-3 API for developers. He has not walked free since November 2020. — In 2016, I was elected as the youngest member of the legislature in Hong Kong. Joshua led the election campaign and worked 18 hours a day. I promised Joshua that we'd form a caucus together in the next term, in 2020, when he'd be old enough to run. It turned out to be the last time Hong Kong held a Legislative Council election in which a genuine political opposition could compete (though only around half the seats were electable). Beijing later imposed an election reform to make Hong Kong's election more like Iran's. Since 2020, the Chinese regime has dismantled Hong Kong's civil society and cracked down on political dissent. Nearly two thousand people have been imprisoned on political grounds. Many others have left the city to seek refuge elsewhere. I fled and was granted asylum in the UK. Joshua is expected to leave prison at 40, after 16 years in jail. Some say he’s naive or reckless; I fiercely disagree. He's one of the most strategic, persistent and risk-taking people I know. He might well have become an amazing entrepreneur if he'd been born elsewhere. He’s brave enough to do something most wouldn’t: risking his freedom to stand up for what’s true and right. I am so humbled by his dedication, and proud to call him my dear friend. When I left Hong Kong, I had no idea that we wouldn't be able to speak for nearly six years. Now, plus ten. When you're young, and work is so intense and busy, you never think to take time to chat. When you're young, and work is so intense and busy, you don't always think to make time just to get together. When people asked me what I regretted most, I often said I hadn't spent enough time simply hanging out with the brilliant people around me. I still feel that loss deeply. I wish I could see him as soon as possible. Joshua should be released immediately. — If you don’t know who Joshua is, I suggest you turn on Netflix and search for his name. No matter how long the authoritarian Chinese regime keeps him imprisoned, his name has already been written into history as one of the bravest activists to stand up against one of the world's most powerful autocracies. Even behind bars, he continues to demonstrate extraordinary courage.