In 2014, a thin teenager in round glasses stood atop a barricade in Hong Kong and became the face of a generation. A decade later, Joshua Wong is again facing the consequences of his activism, this time in a courtroom where the rules have changed beyond recognition. He has now been sentenced for a second conviction under the national security law that Beijing imposed on the city in June 2020. The law was presented by Chinese and Hong Kong officials as a way to restore stability after the mass protests of 2019.

Its definitions of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces are broad, however, and critics argue that this breadth is the point. Prosecutors have used it against former legislators, journalists, union organisers and academics. Many of the movement's leading figures are now in prison, in exile, or silent. Supporters of the law see it differently.

Officials in Hong Kong and Beijing insist that it targets a small minority, that rights and freedoms remain protected, and that the city has regained the order it needs to attract business. Several Western governments, including the United States and Britain, as well as human rights groups, reject that account and say the cases show an erosion of the freedoms promised when Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997 under the formula of "one country, two systems". The sentencing of Mr Wong, who was already in custody, carries more symbolic than practical weight, since the movement he helped lead has largely ceased to function in public. Its real significance lies in what it signals to everyone else.